Hosting the FIFA World Cup is supposed to pay off, but in Canada the arithmetic is proving difficult. According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, staging the tournament will cost Canadians more than one billion dollars, raising hard questions about whether that spending will ever be recovered.
This is the largest World Cup ever, with 48 teams and 104 matches spread across three countries. Canada is hosting only the early stages, while the bulk of the tournament, with three more weeks of football to follow, will play out later in Mexico and the United States.
In Vancouver, home to seven games, the bill for revamping BC Place, adding security and preparing fan zones is estimated at between 685 and 729 million dollars. Toronto, which will host six games, faces an estimated 380 million dollars for readying BMO Field, installing extensive temporary seating and providing security.
Taken together, that works out to roughly 82 million dollars for each game played on Canadian soil. Urban studies professor David Roberts said the signs are already there that Toronto is not where organizers hoped to be, noting the city bought a block of tickets that it is now reselling above face value to try to recoup some of the costs.
A study prepared for FIFA projects the Cup will generate 3.8 billion dollars in economic output, with 1.3 billion of that going to Ontario. Analysts who study mega events remain skeptical, pointing out that the focus during a World Cup is on the matches themselves rather than on the host city or the wider local economy.
Critics also describe the host-city arrangement as one-sided. While the cities and regions carry the cost of staging the games and meeting FIFA's requirements, FIFA keeps much of the revenue, including ticket sales, broadcast rights and almost all commercial sponsorship rights.
The terms were enough to drive some cities away. A Radio-Canada investigation found Montreal organizers balked at what they called the worst agreement, one that would have affected the city's Formula One race and its jazz festival. Chicago also dropped out after FIFA refused to remove a clause giving it the right to request that a dome be built over Soldier Field.
The strain is being felt elsewhere as well. New Jersey, which will host eight matches including the final, is raising the cost of transportation to and from its venue. In April, FIFA released a significant number of hotel rooms across the 16 host cities, and Toronto hotels have since seen uneven occupancy, in some cases down around 10 percent compared with last June.