‘Cost keeps going up’: Province yet to commit to funding Toronto’s World Cup plan

Toronto is scheduled to host five World Cup games in 2026, when the competition will be played across Canada, Mexico and the United States.

With Canada’s first World Cup game since the 1980s just weeks away, politicians in Toronto are already haggling over the details of the next major soccer tournament.

Toronto is scheduled to host five World Cup games in 2026, when the competition will be played across Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The city has pinned many of its plans to host the five games at a cost of around $300 million on help from other levels of government.

In a March staff report, city staff said they were “confident that suitable funding arrangements” can be made for the federal and provincial governments to absorb around two-thirds of that cost.

However, Ontario Premier Doug Ford cast some doubt on that assumption at an event on Wednesday.

“Every day this cost keeps going up and up and up,” Ford said. “And I’m a big soccer fan — I love soccer — but let’s take a look at it, we’ll look at the finances and hopefully we will be able to come up with an answer sooner than later.”

In July, after Toronto was confirmed as a host city, staff revised its cost estimate from $290 to $300 million.

Toronto Mayor John Tory, speaking at a photo opportunity with the World Cup trophy on Wednesday, said the costs would be worth it.