2026 WC Bid?

[Macksam]

11 hours ago, Yohan said:

Your attendance has to be able to fill the stadiums. Giant stadiums and little attendance doesn't do anything. There's a reason why most MLS stadiums are aiming for 20-25k SSS. (Lesson of WC 2002. K League clubs in giant WC stadiums don't work) 

Some teams fill better than others and in 9 years time, I can easily see them filling 40000 seat stadiums, especially if the league improves significantly. I stand by what I said.

[Areathrasher]

8 hours ago, Ansem said:

12 stadiums are needed to host the 48 team world cup.

I'd like to think that in 20 years we'll have the infrastructure to make it happen.

Will there be 48 training grounds with grass pitches and on site medical facilities by then? 

[Ansem]

5 minutes ago, Areathrasher said:

Will there be 48 training grounds with grass pitches and on site medical facilities by then? 

I have no doubt about it. We were prepared for a 32 nation tournament. 48 teams threw us off our game. If we were adamant a going solo for a 32 team tournament, that's an indication that we're not that far off

[Ruffian]

26 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

Curious what the capacity of BMO field if the North and South ends were the same height as the sides.  Would it be roughly 40,000?

That would seem kinda low for World Cup games in Canada's largest city.  

 

It was 40,000 with only the south side expanded for Grey Cup. If they completed the south side and even completed the bowl in the corners it could easily get over 40,000 with just the south side built. 40,000 is easily big enough for a non quarter, semi or final in a World Cup.

[Ansem]

Montagliani on the 2026 World Cup:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/jeff-blair-show/getting-clarification-north-american-fifa-world-cup-bid/

[mrstepp817]

Canada and Mexico basically played the odds it sounds like....look at it like being at the blackjack table in Vegas....basically with the 60/10/10 split Canada/Mexico are up 100$.....you can go all in on a solo bid and maybe win big...or take the sure thing and walk away with a profit (albeit a smaller one) but a profit nonetheless....they took the sure thing...

With the US potentially hosting in 2026 maybe Canada feels like next time CONCACAF hosts the World Cup they can be in better position for solo bid since its less likely they'd give it to the US again....

[mpg_29]

3 minutes ago, Ruffian said:

It was 40,000 with only the south side expanded for Grey Cup. If they completed the south side and even completed the bowl in the corners it could easily get over 40,000 with just the south side built. 40,000 is easily big enough for a non quarter, semi or final in a World Cup.

 

huh didn't realize that had the ability to expand it like that.  So if they had a permanent expansion on the North and South ends it would probably be 45,000 at least.

I don't expect a full bowl design at this point though...seems like it would be a lot of extra money for minimal extra seats. Bulding up the North/South ends seems like the logical design..

Yeah it's probably best to expand BMO rather than build new large stadium. Toronto FC playing in a half empty 70,000 or 80,000 seat stadium would probably look real dumb...

 

[Areathrasher]

18 minutes ago, Ruffian said:

It was 40,000 with only the south side expanded for Grey Cup. If they completed the south side and even completed the bowl in the corners it could easily get over 40,000 with just the south side built. 40,000 is easily big enough for a non quarter, semi or final in a World Cup.

it was 36k for the Grey Cup. 

They had 40k for the Leafs outdoor game. 

The thing that would worry me about BMO is that World Cup games  need a lot of space for press and broadcasters. 

Not sure how you fit in a press box for two hundred journos and multiple onsite broadcast facilities without knocking out a few thousand seats.

Plus all the extra hospitality space FIFA require.   

[Ruffian]

3 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

 

huh didn't realize that had the ability to expand it like that.  So if they had a permanent expansion on the North and South ends it would probably be 45,000 at least.

I don't expect a full bowl design at this point though...seems like it would be a lot of extra money for minimal extra seats. Bulding up the North/South ends seems like the logical design..

Yeah it's probably best to expand BMO rather than build new large stadium. Toronto FC playing in a half empty 70,000 or 80,000 seat stadium would probably look real dumb...

 

You are probably right about completing the bowl being too expensive but it would be great for the in stadium experience. That wind coming off of the lake is horrible in spring. A 15-20 degree day you will still need a hat and gloves during the game in the stadium.

[mpg_29]

2 minutes ago, Ruffian said:

You are probably right about completing the bowl being too expensive but it would be great for the in stadium experience. That wind coming off of the lake is horrible in spring. A 15-20 degree day you will still need a hat and gloves during the game in the stadium.

Toronto FC does manage to hit close to high 20,000's attendance now right? So maybe in 9 years there will be the legitimacy for a new stadium who knows.  Maybe a 50K-60K size stadium that could be used after by Toronto FC wouldn't be that far fetched.

[Rintaran]

Disclaimer: I haven't read through the 20 pages of replies that came in over the past couple of days. Just the most recent page or two.

 

On the bright side, we put in with the bid. With only 10 matches, I'm thinking only 2 cities will host, 3 at most. Very disappointing IMO as I think we could easily have handled more. I've no idea why Mexico would settle for a 10-match deal, but I'm sure their fans are ticked off about it as well. With only 2 cities, Toronto & Vancouver, this means there will be pretty close to zip for growth & development outside those two entrenched cities. Not really a win in my books.

I think that with the competing bid of Morocco/Spain/Portugal, the NA bid just doesn't seem as appealing. I don't think there are any nations that aren't budget conscious right now, so I would think their votes would also take into account travel costs and the like. NA is not exactly travel-friendly compared to MSP, unless they're planning to consolidate the stadia into a couple small regions.

I'm pretty disappointed, but have begun setting aside my paycheques so I can at least buy a ticket to one of the matches in Vancouver (and maybe Seattle), if it shakes out that way. Hopefully it will have a benefit to Canadian Soccer as a whole, but with just 2 or 3 host cities, that already have pro-soccer, I don't think we'll have as much of a knock-on effect as we were hoping.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Given it's mainly the group stage that will be involved, which could wind up being Cape Verde Islands vs South Korea or something like that, I think anything just over 40k is fine. Judging by the Jeff Blair Show clip that's what Victor Montagliani is anticipating in terms of BMO Field being used as one of the venues but apparently they need to see what the minimum requirements are as they may change.

[Macksam]

32 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

Toronto FC does manage to hit close to high 20,000's attendance now right? So maybe in 9 years there will be the legitimacy for a new stadium who knows.  Maybe a 50K-60K size stadium that could be used after by Toronto FC wouldn't be that far fetched.

This

[lazlo_80]

5 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

That plus Sepp Blatter and Traffic Sports exiting the picture. The USSF were planning on sitting out the 2026 bidding process given what happened with Qatar and Russia. When that changed it was basically game over on a successful solo bid. Still thought we could get 1/4 with participation up to the semis on a joint bid based on using Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal as 3 of 12 cities, since they are all viewed as world class cities around the world. Settling for an 1/8th with nothing beyond the round of 16 is embarrassing and I suspect will ultimately mean no automatic qualification spot as it is significantly less than a full co-hosting.

Kristian Jack had an article yesterday that made it sound like canadas auto qualification was a key component of how they crafted the bid. I wouldn't worry about us not getting a spot. 

[mpg_29]

40 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Given it's mainly the group stage that will be involved, which could wind up being Cape Verde Islands vs South Korea or something like that, I think anything just over 40k is fine. Judging by the Jeff Blair Show clip that's what Victor Montagliani is anticipating in terms of BMO Field being used as one of the venues but apparently they need to see what the minimum requirements are as they may change.

 

Yeah that's one things to keep in mind with this expanded format.  

The Africa and Asia confederations combined will have 17 slots for teams, UEFA 16 slots...

 

 

[Kent]

12 hours ago, matty said:

I wonder how long till people start talking about sacking oz so dos santos can lead canada in 2026

I know you said this tongue in cheek, but it's very unlikely OZ would still be manager of Canada in 2026. 9 years is a loooong time for a national team manager. Bob Lenarduzzi had the longest national team managing stretch for Canada from 1992 to 1997. A handful of guys have gone 10 years with a national team in Europe. Mostly a long time ago or with small nations.

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/news/newsid=2224708.html

[Guest]

Morocco "co-hosting" the World Cup wouldn't make it an African World Cup but another European World Cup with Morocco as guests. That bid is no competition.

[nolbertos]

Saw this on the Southsiders Forum.  Can't really say that this will benefit Canada or Mexico at all.  I thought Mont Vic had bigger balls and aspirations for Canada to got at it alone, if thats the deal he struck with the US.  I say Canada needs to go at it alone, all in, no sharing, if we truly need to benefit from a Men's World Cup.  I'm sure the US will put a competitive edge too, but if we want to grow the grassroots, needs more venues for games.

 

[Ansem]

We'll have to wait for 2042-2046 for a Canadian solo bid. Let's just get our house in order first

[Watchmen]

I have no idea why people continue to think there will ever be a solo bid for the World Cup ever again, regardless of the host country..  FIFA has realized they can make more money off of having multiple hosts.  There is no going back.

[Rheo]

9 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

I have no idea why people continue to think there will ever be a solo bid for the World Cup ever again, regardless of the host country..  FIFA has realized they can make more money off of having multiple hosts.  There is no going back.

Add in the fact of a lack of suitable stadiums and the lack of interest of a majority of Canadians and levels of governments to fund 40k+ stadiums that will be used for a month.  It was never realistic in the first place.

[Rintaran]

21 minutes ago, Ansem said:

We'll have to wait for 2042-2046 for a Canadian solo bid. Let's just get our house in order first

Unlikely for a solo with the new format... That said, I'm totally down with a joint Canada/Cascadia bid in this hypothetical future.

[Ansem]

3 minutes ago, Rintaran said:

Unlikely for a solo with the new format... That said, I'm totally down with a joint Canada/Cascadia bid in this hypothetical future.

It's not that we can't do solo, it's that we can't do solo now. Canada was prepared for a 32 team world cup. A 48 World Cup tournament threw a wrench in their plan.

If CPL matures, I'd like to think that by 2035, infrastructure won't be an issue and that our national team will have improved and have no trouble qualifying for every World cups after 2022.

[Rintaran]

Just now, Ansem said:

It's not that we can't do solo, it's that we can't do solo now. Canada was prepared for a 32 team world cup. A 48 World Cup tournament threw a wrench in their plan.

If CPL matures, I'd like to think that 2035, infrastructure won't be an issue and that our team will have improved and have no trouble qualifying for every World cups after 2022.

Perhaps, but that's given the current stadium minimum sizes. These have increased over time, and I'm assuming they'll increase even further by 2042/2046. Unless Canada sees a hell of a population boom, and we get a lot more spendthrift, I have trouble seeing enough growth to roll out on that scale... Of course, we should probably talk about this again toward 2035. The future is all sorts of unpredictable.

[Ansem]

8 minutes ago, Rintaran said:

Of course, we should probably talk about this again toward 2035.

Yeah. We should. This topic is depressing. Hopefully Canada will have grown up a bit and gained much needed self confidence and will have shed that inferiority complex towards Americans.

"It starts between the ears"

-Zambrano