Canada Planning on Bidding for 2026 World Cup

[Senator Clay Davis]

I'm pretty sure Europe and Asia are straight up not allowed to bid for 2026, so Spain-Portugal-Morocco won't work. Unless there's a surprise Africa or South America bid, it would seem the North America bid is the heavy favorite. To me the only countries now who can solo host a 48 team World Cup are US, England, Germany and maybe France or Italy, plus China if they wanna throw money at it. Joint bids will likely be the future of the World Cup

[GirlySports]

europe would be, there is no rule that says you can't have world cups in 8 years. France 98 and Germany 06 being the most recent. And Europe is so vast, Spain and Russia are almost different worlds.

2030 is going to Chile-Argentina-Uruguay for sure so south america is staying out of this one. World Cup Centenary

[Senator Clay Davis]

So breakdown would be 60 games in the US, and 10 each in Canada and Mexico, and everything from the quarters onwards would be US only. So basically the US is letting us tag along to reduce some of the cost of hosting. This is not worth being in without auto qualifying.

[shermanator]

Honestly, I'm okay with Canada getting only 10 games in this tournament. A solo bid was never going to happen. Anyone thinking that the taxpaying public would want to throw billions of dollars into white elephant stadiums for an event held by a corrupt organization like FIFA is kidding themselves.

Now if this bid came with a few dozen indoor full sized FIFA pitches, I can definitely get on board. That's the real infrastructure required for the game in this country.

As for venues, I think BC Place is perfectly suitable with natural grass, and Commonwealth can get an upgrade and natural grass as well. Throw in an expanded and further renovated BMO and/or Saputo and there you have it.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

And Europe is so vast, Spain and Russia are almost different worlds.

Almost as if they're on separate continents.

[Magnum PEI]

^
Forgetting that the Europe/Asia separation is a human construct and the boundary is completely arbitrary, all the cities for WC 2018 are in Europe except one on the "border".

[Magnum PEI]

delete

[browna]

Listing of 44 potential sites.

http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2017...al-host-cities

37 US
9 Canada
3 Mexico

Somewhat surprised at Mexico only having 3.

Some of Canada’s can be tossed. Saputo? Only because of the Saputos making sure their name is attached, Olympic Stadium is the only choice for MTL.
BMO field as well, Skydome is the only place that works for Toronto. Just again, throwing a bone out to the MLS teams for their home pitch.

Realistically Canada likely gets 2-4 venues of the 20 to 25. Mexico 2.
BC Place
Skydome
Olympic Stadium
Maybe Mosaic?

Ottawa,BMO,Saputo too small. Sure they can be expanded with temp seats at the ends, but the main permanent structure, as is, isn’t enough seating. As then you’ll have to add more concessions and washrooms etc for those temporary seats.

McMahon isn’t the worst option,as 50k with temp seats. Still run into washroom and concession issues though. Not likely to be chosen and outside of the Olympics coming here, and something being built, nothing will change.

What soccer stadia need are end seats. End seats may make Skydome a bit dubious, but it is Toronto. But, if Calgary does get the Olympics and a new stadium, it will host WC games.

Commonwealth would have to put up end seats as well. I know the track is gone but the seating areas are still well back from the ends of the soccer field.

Interesting to see Winnipeg’s fairly new stadium doesn’t even make the list.

BC Place IMO, with luxury boxes and recently renovated, is the only place right now that could really hold a candle to any of the NFL stadiums, but Canada will get a couple other token stadiums because of how many games the expanded World Cup by that point, will host.

[cam_wmh]

Ya know, this should be be a mayoral campaign worthy topic.
Sports Infrastructure for Olympics/World Cup. Massive amount of public works capital .. for ?$?$?

[Resolute 14]

McMahon would be a terrible option, actually. The only way Calgary gets a sniff is if we build an entirely new stadium - that will be too large for the CFL afterward. Otherwise, it's going to be BC Place, Skydome, Olympic Stadium and Commonwealth Stadium if Canada gets four. My personal bet is Edmonton also gets left off and only the three MLS cities are included.

[getbak]

BMO had 40,000 people for the Centennial Classic last season, and there were still some gaps in the stands. It could probably be expanded to hold 50,000 if they tried hard enough.

SkyDome can hold about 55,000 at its maximum, so if they can get BMO up to about 50,000, it's probably a better option than SkyDome. It was built for soccer and has natural grass.

With the changes Rogers has made in recent years for the Jays, SkyDome might not be as easy to convert to a soccer layout as it once was. Also, if SkyDome were to host multiple games over the multi-week tournament, the Jays would either have to take a massive road trip, or they'd have to keep converting the building back and forth between baseball and soccer modes.


2026 is still 9 years away, so maybe someone will build Toronto the NFL stadium they've always wanted.

[Joborule]

Skydome isn't that feasible anymore as mentioned by getbak. Jays booted the Argos out to make the stadium more suitable for baseball with the dirt infield. They're planning major renos within the next few years, so future changes may make the field layout even more difficult to convert.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by browna

McMahon isn’t the worst option,as 50k with temp seats. Still run into washroom and concession issues though. Not likely to be chosen and outside of the Olympics coming here, and something being built, nothing will change.

What soccer stadia need are end seats. End seats may make Skydome a bit dubious, but it is Toronto. But, if Calgary does get the Olympics and a new stadium, it will host WC games.

I think McMahon with a 9 digit renovation/rebuild could be a great choice. I suspect effort will be made to have 5 host cities to spread it out... Vancouver, Calgary or Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal.

Calgary is the 4th largest market, has good corporate presence, a decent airport connection, the stadium is easily renovated to 40-50k (and actually needs the work regardless) and its in a decent location.

FIFA won't accept lipstick on a pig though (such as temp seats, artificial turf, bleacher seating and porta potties)... if Calgary is selected, significant cash has to go into the stadium. I can't imagine that McMahon was added to the shortlist without a plan.

[Senator Clay Davis]

That shortlist is amazing because there's at least 20 more American stadiums that are better stadiums than anything Canada has. Wouldn't actually surprise me if Canada only ended up with Toronto and Vancouver hosting.

[Flamenspiel]

McMahon would be an excellent choice, certainly in comparison to what we have seen before. Some if the stadia in Brazil and SA where not in the best of shape. It all depends on soccer politics.

[Weitz]

How many games would Calgary host? 1? 2? More?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Weitz

How many games would Calgary host? 1? 2? More?

hard to say.. there are proposing 16 groups of 3 so if Calgary gets a group that would be 3 games.

or if they really split it up Calgary could get 1 group game and one round of 32 game? I can't see Mexico or Canada hosting any games past the 16s.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Weitz

How many games would Calgary host? 1? 2? More?

I believe the original proposal would see Canada and Mexico each host 10 games and the US would get the other 60. The US will host all games from the quarterfinals on.

It will most likely be 3 cities in Canada, with 2 cities hosting 3 games and 1 city hosting 4 games.


Unless there's a multi-million dollar renovation for McMahon or the construction of a whole new stadium announced in the next 4 months, I don't think there's much chance of Calgary being one of the cities chosen in the New Year.

[browna]

Originally Posted by getbak

Unless there's a multi-million dollar renovation for McMahon or the construction of a whole new stadium announced in the next 4 months, I don't think there's much chance of Calgary being one of the cities chosen in the New Year.

Well, as mentioned, there has to be some glimmer of hope/plan for Calgary to even get announced at this stage.

But yes, agreed. I think it's a placeholder that CESG wants in there. If the City decides to go ahead with the Olympic bid, a new stadium, or a full refurbishment of McMahon will have to be part of that for Opening/Closing ceremonies. Calgary would then have a stadium that would rival BC Place as the best in Canada, and thus get the WC games.

Probably mentioned in one of the threads, but I assume if we get the Olympics, and the CAN/US/Mex bid comes through, Calgary would be the first city in history to host a WC game and Olympics in the same calendar year?

[d_phaneuf]

Wasn't their a proposed schedule earlier? And in it Canada only got a few games in each of Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal

No further than a group stage either IIRC