A 2018 World Cup Bid by Canada?
When most people think of Canada and sports, the first thing that comes to mind is Ice hockey. But, Canada is an up and coming football nation and football (or soccer as it is called there) is growing in popularity. With Toronto FC, the Vancouver Whitecaps and L’impact du Montréal (Montreal Impact), a ninth ranked Women’s national team and a fifty-eighth ranked Men’s team Canadian soccer fans have lots of regional pride, soccer rivalries and a great reason to continue to support the sport and the teams in their country Recently, rumours have been coming up that the Canadian Soccer Association would place a bid for the 2018 World Cup. This now seems less likely due to Canada’s failure to be chosen to host the next Women’s world cup. But, let’s examine a possible bid anyways….
Canada is a diverse and multicultural nation with may sites and attractions to see, a very well developed infrastructure, welcoming population, a wealthy government and a healthy track record when it comes to hosting international sporting events (i.e. 2007 FIFA U20 World cup, numerous Olympic games). These factors would help Canada’s cause but there is one missing element that makes all the difference. lack of suitable stadiums. There’s the Rogers Centre and BMO field in Toronto, Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton and Olympic stadium in Montreal but that’s not enough stadiums and some of the few that were just mentioned will need some work done to them before they can host a World Cup match. Luckily, Their are some new stadium projects in the works though and new stadiums could always be built.
The verdict? If FIFA’s rotation policy was still in effect, Canada would have a god chance of hosting the world cup in 2018 but with the end of the policy, it doesn’t look likely that Canada will be hosting the World Cup in 2018. but, only time will tell.
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Whilst it is true that there are only 3 FIFA-class stadia in Canada (the SkyDome in Toronto, the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and B.C. Place in Vancouver), what we do have a lot of is money, and space. If we want to have any chance of hosting a World Cup, soccer-specific stadia will need to be built in Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, and possibly Edmonton and Winnipeg.
What we don’t have is a lot of interest in either governments nor the populace; most Canadians are oblivious to the world of association football, and have no interest in it whatsoever; when you consider that hockey and soccer are similar in design, only soccer is slower, with no bodychecking or fighting, it is pretty boring for many Canadians. But perhaps it could become our popular sport in the summer; despite having an official summer sport, Canada has no single popular sport in the summer.
What we need to focus on right now is just building a little more association football popularity in Canada. How is that going to happen? Maybe we’ll see when the Whitecaps become an MLS team…
And by the way, we are only “multicultural” because of our wholesale unrestricted immigration policies. We are mostly European, with an aboriginal minority.
And one more thing: Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton is atrocious for association football; it is not built for the sport. The SkyDome and Montreal Olympic Stadium are built for association football.
SkyDome and Olympic Stadium were not built for association football. They can accommodate it, but that is not their designed purpose.
Canada could bid for the World Cup but yes it would need more stadiums, so we would have to put them all closer together. Not in Calgary and Vancouver, but more Ontario and Quebec. Toronto, Hamilton,Quebec City, Montreal, and one other. You can have two stadiums per city. This would work and would be the only way Canada would qualify for the World Cup, is we actually host it. Time to start getting our government working on this, and the Canadian Soccer Association.
I am from Calgary, but I would travel to Ontario for the World Cup.
I was just crunching the stadium dillemma. And it is better than you think. My guess is that a national soccer specific stadium will have to be built, most likely in a place like Toronto or Montreal that can accomodate at least 75000 fans for the final. Other than that we are looking pretty good. Skydome can accomodate 55000 fans, Olympic stadium in Montreal would need some reno but can hold 65000, BC Place is being reno’d as we speak and can hold 60000 fans. Commonwealth Stadium can also hold around 60000. All of these are artificial surfaces but in the event of a world cup being awarded, natural grass can be sodded in temporarily (or possibly permanently in some of the retractable stadiums. So we have 5 stadiums that can hold close to 60000 or more. We would need to renovate McMahon stadium in Calgary and with temp seating it can hold around 46000, Ottawa is considering building a new stadium for it’s expansion football team. If this is the case make it fifa sanctioned and temp exandable to 45000 fans. Both Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Regina have stadiums of around 30000 people that have been exanded into the 40000 range for grey cups. So to sum up we 8 stadiums that can potentially work. New stadiums being planned in both Winnipeg and Ottawa (and possibly Quebec city). The big one is a stadium for the final of at least 75000.
2018 will probably be too soon, plus they will want to go back to Europe after 2 cups away. However, 2022 is a strong possibility.
Hi will be so proud if CAnada host the world soccer cup !!!
Soccer is alive and weel in this country, just go out to fields across the country in the summer time. Kids are playing all over the place and during World Cup kids and parents are flying the flags of their favorite teams. If we brought the World Cup to Canada it would put a fire into our national and regional soccer programs.
Look what the Winter Olympics did for our National Pride. What our Grey Cup does for our belief in Canadian Football. How playing international teams on Canadian soil is driving up the support for our National Canadian Rugby team. How the TFC, VFC, and MFC clubs are gaining fan support yearly.
Soccer has been played in this country since I was a kid in Montreal in the 60’s and is one of the most universal sports in this country because the cost of playing is not as staggering as hockey. I believe if Canada set its sights on hosting the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 the country would pull together to create the stadiums. I also believe given the chance soccer could become one of Canada’s top sports, just look at the ever increasing numbers of children signing up yearly to play soccer.
As I see it, the main problem with a bid by Canada is the strength of our national team. Why host a World Cup only to be embarrassed on a global stage by an extremely poor performance from Team Canada? Think North Korea in South Africa 2010 style. Let’s try and qualify for a World Cup first, then hopefully come away from that with our dignity intact, and finally then think about hosting one.
I beg to differ with Loyalist. More Canadians play soccer than any other sport in Canada and we would have a much better national team if several of our more talented players didn’t play for other countries. Further, the viewership of the 2010 World Cup in Canada has had numbers which would equal many Stanley Cup playoff telecasts. As for having facilities to host the event, most certainly we would need to build at least one facility with 80,000 seats to host the final match, most likely in Toronto. Otherwise, we’re likely doing fine with 9 stadiums in the 30,000 to 65,000 seat range.
Given the size of the country, group stage matches could be regionalized between 2 or 3 cities the make travel simpler and less arduous. Vancouver and Montreal would be candidate cities to host the semi-final matches, but Edmonton would also certainly be in the running
I would agree that an event of this magnitude would need the full support of all levels of government, but given our recent success in hosting the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Canada certainly has everything needed of a host country for this event.
I definitely believe Canada can and should host the world cup at some point in the future. 2022 being the most likely timeframe, although by that stage, the US, Australia or maybe China would be other serious contenders. But certainly i cannot find any reason, as to why Canada couldnt do it. If they start formulating a plan as early as now and try to gain the support at govt levels, it can be achieved. I wouldnt get as caught up in worrying about the level of interest and support for the game of soccer in Canada, as the FIFA world cup is such a huge event possibly even bigger than the Olympic games themselves. So, it would put a truely global spotlight on Canada and could only see positive effects for the country. Hopefully at govt levels, they can have forsight to realise this that it is a far bigger event than a mere sporting one. The FIFA world cup is also a global cultural phonememon that brings the world together. Therefore, it is too good an opportunity in my opinion, for Canada not to at least give it their best shot at staging a bid to host.