@IanO the first thing that you seem to underestimate is the long-term, in terms of exposing the city worldwide, of hosting a FIFA Men's World Cup. It is, by far, the most watched sports event on the planet and it reaches people that the Winter Olympics, for example, would never reach, such as 99% of Latin America, a huge part of South-East Asia and Oceania, Africa and even some parts of Europe. If by chance we get to host one of the main contenders (Brazil, Argentina, England, France, Italy and Germany, more specifically), Edmonton would be in the spotlight not only for the few games we'd host, but for months in a row, as it is custom for the teams to come at least a month in advance to train and concentrate.
As it happens, the World Cup would take place exactly when our city is at its peak, in terms of activities happening. We could have people coming in as early as late May and staying in the city as late as mid-to-late August, taking advantage of our festivals after the event and, with that, boast our brand as Festival City to a big crowd of new and, mostly, unaware people.
Cities with much less touristic appeal than we can have, with a much more deficient infrastructure and less financial capabilities have succeeded in attracting more visitors, even years after the event, in countries with big concerns regarding tourist safety and even communication (you would be surprised with how few English speakers you will find in Mexico, Brazil and even Russia) than we do.
Speaking for myself, I'm usually a very knowledgeable guy, especially when it comes to big cities and this kind of thing and before my wife decided to apple for the PhD at the U of A, I would've never heard of Edmonton or would just be aware of the existence, but know nothing about the city, whereas Calgary, on the other hand, I knew, mostly because of the Olympics, even though, as you can imagine, winter sports are not exactly a thing in Brazil. On the other hand, I can cite and discuss at least a handful of cities in South Africa and Russia that I would've never known at all if it weren't for the World Cup.
Edmonton won't have to invest nearly as much in infrastructure, won't have to build a new stadium, etc, as we already have most of what we need already on the works or done, as of now. The cost of hosting would be infinitely smaller than the short and long term benefits of it and, for once, would be a driver to justify attracting 2 or 3 more 4+ stars hotels in the core and a few other 3+ stars. Especially if the city (and the province) work to market our strengths. Edmonton has one of the most interesting, complex and complete arts and culture environments of Canada (and even North America):
Festivals, a lot of them unique; (really) world class museums (which are usually really appealing to Asian and European tourists, not as much for most Latin American, though), art galleries, concert halls (especially with the expansion of the Winspear Centre); the Fort Edmonton park; the River Valley (that Touch the Water project could be done before the World Cup), interesting and historical architecture; our food scene has been compared to other, much more famous and prominent cities in North America, as recent as 2018/19. Add the fact that, even though we're not nearly as close to the Rockies as Calgary, we're close enough to be a manageable weekend getaway, being 4 hours from both Banff and Jasper national parks.
I don't believe Edmonton has, currently, the same potential as Calgary (too close to the Rockies and more international business travelers), Vancouver, Toronto or QC (which is a little bit held back due to being francophone) but objectively speaking, I don't see any reason why we couldn't achieve the same level of international recognition as Montréal, which has essentially the same kind of things we do: arts, culture and history. They don't have gorgeous nature and famous parks, they lost tons of businesses to Southern Ontario and Toronto in recent years and they still have a bit of a bad reputation of being unfriendly to non-French speakers and being dangerous (not that it is necessarily true).
It is not something that can happen overnight and without planning and cooperation. It would probably take decades to reach a level where the city is actually in a level of recognition that pays off the investment, but my educated guess is that the positive effects of doing so would long outlast the costs and project Edmonton in a much more stronger way, and I believe that the 2026 World Cup would be a really good kick-off (pun intended).
And I'm not even going to enter the discussion that, instead of competing with Calgary, the two cities should work together to become a much more stronger entity (maybe even ensuing an actual urban corridor between them at some point), because it is bound to strike the nerves of some people here.
