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Canada Soccer

Does Vancouver have federal support? Because from what I recall only Edmonton and Toronto do.

It would be great to have some sort of additional plans or support in terms of what Edmonton could offer similar to how Toronto is planning to establish a National training center.
 
CaptainBL said:
Does Vancouver have federal support? Because from what I recall only Edmonton and Toronto do.
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No, Vancouver does not have federal support, since they withdrew early on.

CaptainBL said:
It would be great to have some sort of additional plans or support in terms of what Edmonton could offer similar to how Toronto is planning to establish a National training center.
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Agreed. The Commonwealth could very well be the "home" of Canada Soccer, just as Wembley is for England, or Maracana is for Brazil. It is already the preferred venue by the Women's National Team, so making it official for all could be something the city pushes for.

Maybe adding a new space there, with a museum dedicated to both Men's ad Women's national teams, the history of the two World Cups hosted in Canada (2015 Women's WC, 2026 Men's WC) and the history of the sport in the country.

A partnership with the CPL to maybe create a youth development centre in Western Canada, at least.
 
I like these ideas by @ChazYEG - make it so!

Of course, there is the small matter of converting the Commonwealth Stadium lawn from artificial turf to natural grass. Though I'm not really sure how long it will take, and how such a process will affect the Elks and big concerts.
 
One question: where do we believe the money that has been committed will go?

I know that organizing the matches, fan-fest and events usually take up a substantial amount, but by my calculations, between all three levels of government, the total commitment is close to $500M.

Some of it will have to go to some improvements in the Commonwealth, like the natural grass turf, updates in the amenities, etc.

Assuming these 2 items take up to 40% of the total ($200M, and that's high!!!), where would you place your bets?

Mine:

Airport: renovations, especially in the baggage claim area, new lounges, maybe a small expansion, improvements in the QE II and increased transit service between the airport and different points of the city (people will be going to hotels, right?).

General Infrastructure: finishing the Jasper Ave re-modelling, improvements in the Downtown and Old Strathcona (paving, sidewalks, etc.)

not sure about the rest
 
Gronk! said:
I like these ideas by @ChazYEG - make it so!

Of course, there is the small matter of converting the Commonwealth Stadium lawn from artificial turf to natural grass. Though I'm not really sure how long it will take, and how such a process will affect the Elks and big concerts.
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It takes 6 to 12 months to have it perfect, but with 3 months you could get it in playable shape (not World Cup standard, though). Modern tech allows for big concerts with minor damage to natural turfs (most new multi-use arenas in Europe and South America have natural turf and receive concerts very frequently).
 
realkevbo said:
Driving a hard bargain... Going directly at Vancouver AND Toronto with this

View attachment 388745
View attachment 388752
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Man, this is like a roller coaster of emotions today.
Given the costs, it would be nice to be hosting 5 games and having the provincial money tied to that is going to be interesting. What is even more worrying is that we have to have at least two games in round of 32 and/or 16 played here. Certainly, between Edmonton and Toronto, we've got a stadium that will hold an extra 10,000 spectators, that's a lot more revenue.

The strings attached to the money are unpacked here:
https://edifyedmonton.com/urban/str...the-chips-when-it-comes-to-the-world-cup-bid/
 
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My dream would be to did the field at Commonwealth down a bit so they can add more seats closer to the field of play. Would be a nice legacy piece for Elks games and most other events. They could make those seats removable so if they absolutely needed to reinstall a track for a major event it could be done. They have to tear up the field anyways so why not dig it down a bit right :)

Otherwise this is going to be an awesome showcase of our city.
 
Same.

FIFA has stated they will only be announcing the cities who have been selected to host in their upcoming update and then a year later in 2023 it will announce what games will be scheduled where (according to a US article).

I would like to think the province's conditions could be negotiable if the city was selected, such as if we were only designated one round of 32 game instead of two.
And what if FIFA came back with 4 games, would the province truly turn it down? It's hard to know.

What is also not known, but will be soon, is how much is Vancouver really being considered. They did not do a site visit there at all. They weren't a part of official bid. If Van is not included (can't they just focus on 2030 Olympic bid?), then yeg getting 5 games seems very likely.

And Vancouver city council came out and said they are putting up $5million - well that is not going to be nearly enough. Reports in BC starting to come out about how much this is going to cost - see below.

City hall won’t comment on costs of hosting 2026 World Cup matches in Vancouver

Toronto pegs price tag of hosting five games of international soccer tournament at $290 million
www.google.com www.google.com
 
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The_Cat said:
I could see the Round of 32, but the Round of 16 might be expecting a lot.
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The submitted Bid Book to FIFA from the United CAN-USA-MEX delegation has already laid out the agreed upon games countries will host. And in the submission Canada will only host 2 games in Round 32 and 1 game in Round 16 and no hosting of any games in the quarter, semi or finals. The other 7 are Group games. Notably the opening games will be simultaneously held in 3 cities, one in each of Canada, Mexico and the USA and I would think Edmonton could be the Canadian site given our stadium. All quarterfinals, semi-finals, and the final will be hosted by the United States. (Unless FIFA make a change due to issues we are unaware of or Canada only having 2 hosting cities. Bid Book Game Schedule is here: https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/3c077448dcd5c0ab/original/w3yjeu7dadt5erw26wmu-pdf.pdf

And here are the conditions of the GoA for its $110M from https://edifyedmonton.com/urban/str...the-chips-when-it-comes-to-the-world-cup-bid/. with my comments.

This funding commitment is subject to the following terms and conditions:
  • Confirmation of federal and municipal funding for the bid. (not a problem unless the contributions from Canada and Edmonton are inadequate to complete the asks by FIFA and we don't know the answer to that yet)
  • Acknowledgement and acceptance of the province’s letters of assurance as presented to the City of Edmonton and in response to the FIFA Government Guarantees. (what is in this letter - devil in the details and could be a spoiler for Edmonton)
  • Confirmation that the City of Edmonton is assured to host at least five games by FIFA, if accepted as a host city, and that at least two of these five games are at the round of 32 or round of 16 knockout stages.(that is 5 of the 10 games Canada will get and if a 3rd city comes into the picture this will not be achieved nor will getting 2 of the 3 games Canada is scheduled for in the Bid Book so likely this is a major problem unless Soccer Canada can win over the people in Toronto).
  • Confirmation that unforeseen security costs will be the responsibility of the city and the federal government. (a problem as Edmonton can not force the Government of Canada to do anything - so an item to be resolved) EDIT; RESOLVED BELOW AS POSTED BY TAS
  • Allocation of one-third of the seating allocated to the City of Edmonton. (I don't know why this was put in place and unaware where seats were held by FIFA for a location population in any other games. This could be a huge issue for FIFA and stink bomb that pisses them off).
 
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EdmTrekker said:
[*]Confirmation that unforeseen security costs will be the responsibility of the city and the federal government. (a problem as Edmonton can not force the Government of Canada to do anything - so an item to be resolved)
[*]Allocation of one-third of the seating allocated to the City of Edmonton. (I don't know why this was put in place and unaware where seats were held by FIFA for a location population in any other games. This could be a huge issue for FIFA and stink bomb that pisses them off).
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According to this, federal government has agreed to all security costs.

 
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