BINDA: Taxpayers don’t want to pay for FIFA World Cup

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Ontario taxpayers don’t think hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026 is worth the cost.  

That’s according to new polling from Leger, commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.   

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With a price tag of $380 million to host just six international soccer games, who can blame Ontario taxpayers for having cold feet?   

Leger asked Ontario residents if they thought it was worth spending up to $380 million to host six soccer games during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.   

Fifty per cent responded that the six soccer games are not worth the cost, compared to only 39% who responded that it is worth it. The remainder did not have an opinion.    

Normal families across Ontario are lying awake at night wondering how they will afford the basics and the Ontario government is running up the provincial debt by billions of dollars every year. Taxpayers should not be stuck with a $380-million bill for hosting a handful of international soccer games.   

And about that $380 million — when the games were first pitched by Toronto bureaucrats in 2018, cost estimates ranged between $30 to $45 million. At the high end, that means costs have ballooned by more than 744% in the past seven years.   

That’s not just a cost overrun; that’s a betrayal of accountability and basic honesty by provincial and municipal politicians.    

The federal government is spending more than $104 million on Toronto’s six soccer games, while the province is kicking in an additional $97 million. Municipal taxpayers are on the hook for another $179 million.   

That means families across Ontario and the country are spending hundreds of millions of dollars so Toronto can host a few soccer games that have absolutely no benefit to them.   

And there truly is no net benefit for taxpayers. “Hosting the FIFA World Cup is overall ineffective in tourism promotion,” according to a peer-reviewed article in the academic Journal of Tourism Economics.  

The $380 million going towards FIFA could build 11 schools in the Greater Toronto Area with space for more than 9,050 students. It could pay the salaries of 475 registered nurses for a decade. Instead, it’s being shovelled out the door so Toronto can host six international soccer games.   

Make no mistake: Ontario can’t afford to host these games.   

Ontario taxpayers will be on the hook for $461 billion worth of provincial government debt by the end of this year. Premier Doug Ford is recklessly adding $22 billion to the debt this year. When Ontario is already the most indebted sub-national government in the world, borrowing even more money just to host a few soccer games is the type of budgeting you would expect to see from a frat house, not Canada’s biggest province.   

Interest payments on Ontario’s mammoth debt are already costing taxpayers $1,000 per person this year. Borrowing more to host six soccer games is like maxing out your eighth credit card to go on a luxury vacation. Sure, it might be fun at the time, but you’re going to be in for a world of hurt when those bills come due.   

And remember, Toronto is not hosting the entire event; it’s only hosting six out of 104 games. None of the six games being hosted in Toronto are finals, semifinals or even quarterfinals.   

If hosting an entire World Cup does not promote tourism, how on earth will hosting six of the lowest-profile matches in the tournament provide any kind of net benefit to Toronto?   

Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow need to pull the plug on their plan to spend taxpayer money to host these games. Taxpayers do not think they are worth the cost, while the government is irresponsibly running up the debt.   

Carson Binda is the B.C. director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation