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Edmonton Events / conferences

The 2019 International Executive Association is in Edmonton this weekend.
Some pretty big names all around North America are coming to little old Edmonton. This is a huge opportunity for Edmonton to get some pretty nice business opportunity's from out of country company's

There are still tickets available for the conference but they are quite expensive
They start at $561




 

Montreal may have to bow out as a host city to 2026 World Cup. Not sure if the cost escalation is a result of work they might have had planned for Olympic Stadium or what. Wonder what that might mean for Edmonton?
 

Montreal may have to bow out as a host city to 2026 World Cup. Not sure if the cost escalation is a result of work they might have had planned for Olympic Stadium or what. Wonder what that might mean for Edmonton?
Edmonton is well positioned to receive the matches, in general, because from the public real side, our only major cost exclusively associated with the event would be converting the synthetic grass of the Commonwealth to natural turf. The stadium itself, as well as the transit access, parking operations, etc, are all already at FIFA's standards, save for any minor intervention that might be needed.

All of the other major infrastructure projects that we currently have going on (and would generally be associated with the event in other places, as happened in the last 4 World Cups in Germany, South Africa, Brazil and Russia) are already funded an underway and can actually be accelerated as part of the economic recovery plans for Edmonton and Alberta, in particular, the VL West, NAIT and Blatchford stops in the Metro Line, Yellowhead Trail Freeway conversion and Anthony Henday extra lanes in the S a SW sections.

That leaves us with the need for the hospitality industry to invest in high end 5* and 4* hotels, as well as maybe some 3* hotels, mostly, as well as cosmetic and small improvements in our central streets and parks.

As for the matches that would be hosted in Montreal, I see two paths: either FIFA will keep these in Canada (which is possible, as they have agreements with the countries to ensure a minimum number o matches in each one, as seen in 2002 Korea/Japan joint event) or they'll pick up the runner up in the US and move these 3 matches there.

The most likely scenario will be picking up another city, for a bunch of reasons, but primarily, because each of the 16 host cities is supposed to host only 3 matches in the Groups Phase. To balance this out with the contract of having 10 matches in Canada (which is what I believe they're at right now), possibly Edmonton and Toronto would host a Round of 16 game and Toronto a Round of 8 and one of the Semifinals (along with Mexico City, giving the US the final and 3rd Place dispute, possibly LA and NY).

That is assuming no other Canadian city would be interested in taking Montreal's place, if they drop out. Vancouver COULD still get into that, not sure how BC's post-Covid strategy is, though.
 
I guess this event and the $16 million it would have brought to the City is now not happening. Or the conference may happen virtually but not the economic benefits for Edmonton.
A real shame for this was going to be absolutely massive for our city.
 

Northlands put out behind the woodshed finally. Explore Edmonton to run K-Days going forward.

EDIT: my apologies, I see this was posted on another thread. Anyhow.
 
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Hopefully they figure out how to make Kdays unique. Keep the successful parts, retool the parts that were only moderately successful.

One of the things I always enjoyed was the feature country pavillion that they used to run every year. I was also a fan of the sourdough raft race as well as the bathtub races.
 
Love reading this push to have Edmonton host some upcoming national team soccer matches on road to 2022 World Cup. And of course, 2026 World Cup. Let's bring Davies home!

Just wondering, for any World Cup qualifiers, would Commonwealth need to be converted to grass, or is that only for World Cup?

 
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I do not think they need grass for qualifiers. Canada recently played Haiti on a turf field in a qualifier.

Would be great to see more national team games here, and I think Edmontonians would come out to watch Davies play.

My understanding is that playing in Turf for qualifiers is acceptable, however the turf needs to be one that is authorized by FIFA, not sure if the one in Commonwealth is approved.
 

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