Toronto’s World Cup Hosting： Was It Worth It？ Residents Weigh In
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Hate speech
3
sentences flagged
Summary
The World Cup brought massive international attention to the city of Toronto, Canada, but did it really pay the bills for the infrastructure, stadiums, and operations? We spoke to Torontonians to find out what they thought of the World Cup and FIFA's handling of the games.
Transcript
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Uh, FIFA's corrupt, but what can you do? I don't know.
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We'll let bioses corrupt, governments are corrupt.
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Just want to have a bit of fun. I don't want to stress too much about it.
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I'm here in downtown Toronto, where Canada recently played host to several games in the
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2026 World Cup as part of our co-hosting agreement with Mexico and the United States.
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the games brought massive international attention giving us packed stadiums and a surge in visitors
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to the city but with over a billion dollars in taxpayer costs for canada's share including
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infrastructure and operations and some rumors of politicians getting free tickets while everyday
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folks like you and me had to pay premium prices many people in toronto are left wondering was it
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really worth it to bring the games here we took to the streets to see what residents of toronto had
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to say uh frankly i love soccer i love the world cup i love how it brings like communities together
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you know especially in a diverse multicultural fabric like Toronto but economically like for my
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for me at least like a slow down work for a lot in the city and we live in a society where
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you either rely on wage or salary for to pay your bills and your rent and stuff like that so
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in many ways it was negative in that respect as well you know and I feel it could have been
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handled better but no world cup is perfect but I mean go England I guess you know they all they
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work for the same masters but i don't want argentina to win that's for sure is there any
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events that you think that toronto would do better to put on rather than events like you know fifa is
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pretty famous for taking a large percentage of the profits um so if there's anything else that
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you think that the city would be more invested in i mean i mean toronto like they have the
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opportunity to even make something of their own where they would reflect the multicultural fabric
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of our city but this feels like i don't know if it's corruption or just an aptitude of our
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politicians and the bureaucrats and stuff but i feel like there could be a lot more positivity
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grown if we just like focus on our what we got here and grow that instead of like importing
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events here i think in general i would like to have spend the money on problems like the
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homelessness in the city because you have some corners there um where it's not that nice to to
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walk being two women and night um but in general once in a lifetime i think it's okay to bring the
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games in the city i think we're a class city reserved at world-class events excellent around
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with spending on things that make people happy so uh the return investment for the city was
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underwhelming and uh they were expecting a return on parks and festivals not always but it makes
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people happy that's what your tax dollars go to so let's enjoy things absolutely and do you have
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have any thoughts on how fifa takes a large percentage of their earnings for themselves or
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yeah i mean that's not great uh fifa's corrupt but what can you do i don't know what ioc is corrupt
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governments are corrupt just want to have a bit of fun i don't want to stress too much about it
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it's been great for the city had a lot of people um out and about enjoying uh from all over the
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world and uh obviously toronto is the best and uh they've been voted one of the best
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seems to be a part of in the whole FIFA World Cup anyway so rock on and go England. Fantastic.
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Do you have any thoughts on the fact that some politicians were getting free tickets to the
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games meanwhile members of the city were having to spend upwards of like sixteen hundred dollars
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I heard for some tickets. Well I unfortunately didn't get any tickets or can't afford to go
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into those games but I'm not sure if the standpoint in some of them but I know some countries like
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Kenya were able to get some of their fans to go out there and support their country that way and
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And I think Toronto should have probably followed that same suit.
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And then the last question is, what are your thoughts on how much of the overhaul that FIFA ends up taking from the city,
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as opposed to how much we're earning as the hosts?
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Wow, there was probably some astronomical numbers there, but maybe we should get some of that back.
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What are your thoughts on the price of tickets and the fact that, you know,
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there's rumours that politicians were getting free tickets.
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Well, meanwhile, regular Canadians were spending upwards of like $1,600.
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but it's not surprising considering all the corruption right we've we've learned
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to live with it and accept it that's too bad absolutely and do you have any
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thoughts on other events that you think the city should be making bids on to
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bring here or where else they could just be spending the money in general I do
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do you think we should be spending more money at home?
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just for people to get at their prices, that's for sure.
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on how much FIFA is actually ending up taking from the city?
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I'm sure they're raking in way more than we know, that's for sure.
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I've heard that politicians were getting free tickets to the games.
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You guys are going to take away X amount of tickets
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from the stadiums that we're supposed to go see the games at
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and then resell them for three times the prices
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And then you put that thing about that new law,
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their new regulation about how it's illegal to sell tickets for concerts and things at like
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more than the price of the actual event we put an exception on the fifa world cup especially
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because you have an allocated set that you want to resell all that rise back years yeah i'm a big
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soccer fan i i go to bmo a lot like and it's just a disappointment it's just a disappointment to see
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were actual fans of the countries that came out,
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like people who flew over here, or people who are here
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who are wealthy enough to support their country
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While many Torontonians enjoyed the global spotlight
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others had some pressing concerns about whether or not
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the money could have been better spent elsewhere.
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Others pointed to pressing local challenges, such as the city's homelessness crisis,
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and wondered if the massive amount of spending could have been better directed to more immediate needs at home.
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Now that Canada's out of the Games, people are looking forward to the England vs. Argentina match,
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and the debate of the sunken cost vs. the value that the Games brought to the city continues.
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So we're going to ask you, the viewers at home, what do you think?
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Was it worth it to bring the Games to Toronto this year?
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For Western Standard, I'm Geoff Knight, signing out.