FIFA World Cup: What could 2026 mean for Toronto?

BMO Field

At the moment, the home of Toronto FC is nowhere near ready to host anything as big as the World Cup. During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Toronto will most likely be the biggest area of tourism for the country, meaning the stadium is going to have to keep pace. Sportsnet‘s Steven Loung notes this when writing the following:

"BMO Field’s capacity is much smaller than the other two. Unless more expansion of the stadium is planned, 40,000 probably isn’t going to cut it, particularly because Toronto is likely to be a very popular destination for the many, many fans that travel for the World Cup."

This is a spot on assumption, especially considering that both the Olympic Stadium in Montreal and the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton host well over 50,000 people. This could potentially draw the attention of FIFA, to suggest increasing the capacity of BMO over the course of time.

Increasing the capacity of the ground could see a jump in overall renovations to the stadium, too. Parking space and outside arrangements, along with the pitch itself, might need to be adjusted.

More from Tip of the Tower

• Cam Phillips making his mark on Toronto Argonauts offence
• Toronto Argonauts: 4 storylines ahead of matchup against Redblacks
• Federico Bernardeschi ready for new challenge with Toronto FC
• Toronto Argonauts overcome Roughriders in entertaining Touchdown Atlantic
• Buffalo Bills: Von Miller drawing inspiration from Bruce Smith

These guaranteed renovations to BMO Field in the future could result in both some positives and negatives. The plus side of things seems rather obvious in that TFC could get a pretty nice stadium to play in after the World Cup is finished. A lot can be seen for what has been done in Russia to make their grounds look world class, and football there is just as big as it is in North America.

However, the downsides revolve around the fact that nothing is free. Nobody knows how much the three hosting nations will divide up to cover for expenses, but it can be assured that Toronto will be paying a load of money.

If going off recent history fits properly, Canada is looking at a good $1 billion just for stadium infrastructure at the very least. Brazil paid around $2-3 billion in 2014, while Russia paid double that amount to host this year’s tournament.

This is not to mention that some of the improvements would only be temporary. Staging contests to look sharp is a big part of FIFA’s overall presentation to viewers. Props and other forms of technology might not be Toronto’s to keep after the games, and they might have to pay for some of it as well.

At the moment, the overall debate revolving around stadium improvements seems very neutral. Chances are that Toronto will have to bite the bullet in terms of pricing, in order to progress the development of BMO Field.