City Hall committees warn of money woes one year before World Cup

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With just over a year until kickoff, it appears the City of Toronto’s World Cup money is still very much in motion.

While councillors were told last week that spending plans for the soccer bash remain on budget, they also learned City Hall is considering ways to “reduce scope” and Mayor Olivia Chow floated the possibility that the provincial and federal governments may not come through with their share.

As Chow put it, the soccer situation is in “flux.”

The city’s World Cup subcommittee on Monday elected to send its update on government funding straight to next week’s City Council meeting, bypassing the powerful executive committee to give bureaucrats more time to craft a report. But Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik added the item in time for the executive committee to also discuss it the next day.

“We have recently received some correspondence from the provincial government that has implications on our financing of this magnificent opportunity, so we are doing some negotiations,” Chow told the committee on Tuesday.

“The cabinet has just been sworn in, the federal cabinet that is, and we don’t know at this point what the new government would do,” the Mayor added. “Hopefully, they will honour previous arrangements. We shall see. So, things are in a bit of a flux.”

Councillors at that meeting were told that Toronto’s World Cup project was still on budget. That was only a day after Malik pressed Sharon Bollenbach, executive director of the city’s World Cup secretariat, about “progress” on the “funding gap.”

Bollenbach, giving the FIFA subcommittee an update about the city’s procurement plan, said work is being done to find “prospects” for the champions table – private donors willing to give money to offset the cost of hosting the soccer tournament.

Bollenbach also said city staffers are eyeing ways to reduce costs and “perhaps reduce scope.”

The final wording of the procurement update, which City Council will vote on this week alongside the government update, recommends councillors authorize Bollenbach and the head of procurement to negotiate with vendors “whose initial quotations exceed targets.”

Toronto will host six World Cup games, with the first set for June 12, 2026.

The report Bollenbach brought to the committee on Monday shows total capital costs have grown by nearly $10 million from an estimate at the start of the year, and a contingency fund for operations has been shrunk from $30.5 million to $21 million. While it’s not clear what is driving the rise in costs, the document said the pricing “is surpassing initial estimates” after pre-construction work at BMO Field.

At the meeting, Malik appeared to suggest tariff concerns and trade disruption could be weighing on the FIFA balance sheet.

Bollenbach said work is “perhaps a little bit behind” on BMO Field’s north end, where temporary seating will be added for the World Cup.

In addition to drawing on the contingency fund, the document says extra costs will be made up for in savings on the training site at Centennial Park and new funds from BMO Field operator Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

The new $224-million operating budget still makes up most of the $380-million FIFA hosting price tag. Expenses for general operations, tournament operations, commercial rights expenses and legacy funding – money earmarked for social initiatives such as a jobs program for “equity-deserving” youth – appear largely unchanged.

When council committed to Toronto’s World Cup bid in April 2022, the city had pegged the cost at $290 million.

Deputy Mayor Mike Colle, in his first meeting as the subcommittee chairman, asked Bollenbach about the funding model for Toronto as a 2026 FIFA host city and was told only Toronto and Vancouver’s operations are primarily run by government.

“There’s a variety of governance models across the 16 cities. … Some are getting government funding, but certainly not to the extent of the two Canadian cities,” Bollenbach said.

The meeting wasn’t all about money woes. Bollenbach talked a bit about improving community soccer fields across the city, and hinted at the plans for a free fan festival to be held at Fort York and the Bentway.

While admission would be free, Bollenbach said the fan fest may be ticketed to manage crowds.

Meanwhile, Bollenbach told the subcommittee World Cup merchandise should be on sale in the city “very soon” – and said City Hall will get a cut of the profits for any of those products specifically related to Toronto.

jholmes@postmedia.com