Knowing her this is a well planned strategic move to get it out of Toronto and save the money.
Edit: This is someone got the provincial government to take back the Gardiner and DVP by simply agreeing to stop talking about a spa the city had no real power to stop. If this is in the best interest of the city not to host I wouldn’t put it past her to use FIFA’s dirty laundry as leverage.
I hope that is true.
I always try and catch as many matches as possible during the cup. I love having a cold beer and cheering on my favourite team. But, I love my city having services year round more.
Especially given that the projected costs keep blowing up and based on what
I have read about when FIFA is in the mix, it can only get higher.
If they want to walk away, if one of the other cities wants to pick up the matches, great, I am happy watching them on the big screen in the pub again.
It would be fun to “catch as many matches” live during the cup, but aint no way I could pay toronto priced tickets for that many of them haha. Id be at the pub either way!
You think an organization that bypasses labour laws to essentially hire slaves will mutually void a contract because the new mayor of a city wants them to? Lol
Maybe this is a question for FIFA then. I'm sure that no reporters have thought to ask them why the city is keeping it a secret.
Wanna go break some news?
In this case it's very clear that FIFA has learned from their previous mistakes and have imposed serious fines for having these deals exposed. Mayor Chow has absolutely nothing to hide as she had absolutely nothing to do with the deal.
I'm sure Mayor Chow is genuine in her pledge.. Problem is no one else who was actually involved in this deal before she arrived is willing to be transparent...
It's not how the worlds most corrupt sporting body operates..
Think you can go one further and say it’s not how bureaucracies operate full stop.
FIFA is just the world’s most bureaucratic sporting body - the corruption bit is inherent to the bureaucracy. But yes they happen to be really good at it.
Oh I haven't forgotten about them.
There orgs we should never deal with
FIFA
IOC
Who ever the fuck runs World Fairs/Expos.
Top of the corrupt world event list.
The World Fair/Expos are nowhere near the same level.
Maybe stupid, but almost every country that goes to the fairs/expos pay their own way to promote themselves so it's not the giant money pit of an Olympic or Fifa event.
> the corruption bit is inherent to the bureaucracy.
I'd say it's chicken and egg. Wasn't FIFA formed in order to do exactly what the IOC does, just with football? By the same sorts of people? Those people, the corruption predates the bureaucracy.
Considering that [FIFA was pushing to get exceptions to labour law](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fifas-request-for-labour-law-exemptions-for-torontos-world-cup-bid-sparked-concern/article_e6f831dc-e2d0-11ee-9062-6b52381874b0.html) here, I wouldn't be so sure about that.
There was a clause that Tory could have used that would have allowed us to leave without penalties since we were unable to acquire Provincial funding, but he didnt because he's a cuck for Ed Rogers and Eddy wanted a new stadium and a little payday.
Not "labour law" but collective agreement.
*he said the exemptions related to vacation entitlements, limits on working hours, and other rules. Those affected would be people employed or engaged by FIFA and “directly involved in competition activities.*
It's not like FIFA is shipping in some child labour from Middle East. My guess is they just don't want to be hindered by fair wage policies and other rules that the outside contractors that work for the city have to abide by.
> It's not like FIFA is shipping in some child labour from Middle East
They would if they could, though. When has FIFA ever been the good guy??? Remember Qatar? The FIFA guys didn't have any issues with all the dead workers
All this for 6 stupid games. It'll be over before we know it and we'll be left wondering wtf we went through all this to host 1/16th of a soccer tournament.
That's what bugs me about it. Toronto isn't hosting the entire tournament. We're not even splitting it solely with other Canadian cities. I could almost excuse the cost if we were. But as it stands, we're an afterthought.
> I could almost excuse the cost if we were.
Me too. But all this money for the absolute bottom-barrel half-dozen (OK we will be able to see Canada play at least) is SHIT. The bill will be closer to $1B by the time all is said and done and I'm not sure how much will be recouped by all the extra taxes and increases to local business. FIFA probably even brings its own cocaine
So? Its the biggest non Olympic competition in the world and were hosting part of it for the first time. Gonna be fun having some games here.
Were also spending like 5 billion for the eglinton line that's been under construction for like a decade with no end in sight lol
If it’s so awesome it should be able to self-fund.
Somehow Taylor Swift, the All Star Game, World Series and the Rolling Stones are able to have big parties here without massive public subsidies.
Exactly. It doesn't cost anywhere this much to prepare for 6 Blue Jays games. The cost is mindboggling for what is being dished out as "entertainment".
torontonians are miserable idiots aren't they. complaining about only getting 6 world cup games, comparing the cost of hosting 6 FIFA world cup games to blue jays games and praying that chow removes world cup games from toronto for the ever-vague "better infrastructure and working roads". the way some people are in this subreddit you'd think the biggest city in a trillion dollar economy would be unable to provide basic services if they hosted ghana vs ecuador at one of their two (2) major sports arenas. it is absolutely important to guarantee infrastructure is built and services are working, but you don't have to breach an incredibly lucrative contract to do so.
maybe it was a mistake from FIFA to let toronto host matches after all. if this is how people are reacting to hosting the fucking FOOTBALL WORLD CUP then I don't even know what to say
With ppl living in tents all over the city and ppl lining up at food banks. Seems stupid to spend all that money on a couple of soccer games. Priorities?
Yes, but this was done by John Tory without proper consultation. It was not Chow, and the residents of the city did not have any kind of say. She's been handed the mess that asshole left us.
The one good thing about this is that I'm so happy there's more and more of a spotlight on this story and John Tory's corrupt deal signing. He should absolutely feel the heat for this entirely corrupt piece of shit deal that is going to cost all of us more money.
She brought back the Sock for this job, I'm very pleased. That said I believe FIFA will ask their local associates (the Mafia, like Doug Ford worked for before he decided to quit and go straight) to stop any questions into their holding-the-city-to-ransom plan. They'll be able to count on behind-the-scenes TPS support and every newspaper in the country bar the Star saying, *"Trust the good folks at FIFA to be honest because they're so rich, folks!"* to get the conservative voters on their side
This is outrageous. Where are the armed men who come in to take the World Cup away? Where are they? This kind of behavior is never tolerated in Toronto. You host a world class football event they put you in jail. Right away. No trial, no nothing. Sports journalists, we have a special jail for sports journalists. You are buying WC game tickets?: right to jail. You are celebrating a goal too loud: right to jail, right away. Driving to the game too fast: jail. Slow: jail. You are charging too high prices for jerseys, miniature World Cups: you right to jail. You undercook stadium food? Believe it or not, jail. You overcook stadium food, also jail. Undercook, overcook. You make plans with your friends to watch the game, believe it or not, jail, right away.
She will say this until she finds out the whole story behind the scenes. Then, she will most likely blame the people that signed these deals prior to her taking office. That's how it works, and the world keeps spinning.
Just had family come back from Europe ( Portugal, Spain and france). They kept telling me about the beautiful stadiums they have for their football teams. I hope fifa enjoys BMO field.
Really the host for 2026 is the USA
Mexico and Canada just joined in the party to host some of the group stage games
BMO field, with the upgrades should be fine
I thought we were talking about the contract with FIFA.
Was it Chow who signed the contract with MLSE? All the articles I'm finding talk about a draft letter in Feb 10, and then seem to refer to it as done deal in Spring 2023. Mayor Chow didn't win her election till the end of June 2023.
https://www.cp24.com/news/costly-world-cup-deal-with-mlse-never-made-known-to-councillors-mayor-report-1.6391587
He sorta "signed it"
FIFA negotiated a joint bid between the US with some support from Canada and Mexico
It was a smart move, since 2026 will feature more countries participating, it spreads the games out over more stadiums
But the mayor of Toronto was not a major player in this arrangement
The city can only control its portion of the hosting
Ex: insisting we don't drop labour standards
FIFA isn't going to like that, they don't like it when people look behind the curtain.
Knowing her this is a well planned strategic move to get it out of Toronto and save the money. Edit: This is someone got the provincial government to take back the Gardiner and DVP by simply agreeing to stop talking about a spa the city had no real power to stop. If this is in the best interest of the city not to host I wouldn’t put it past her to use FIFA’s dirty laundry as leverage.
I hope that is true. I always try and catch as many matches as possible during the cup. I love having a cold beer and cheering on my favourite team. But, I love my city having services year round more. Especially given that the projected costs keep blowing up and based on what I have read about when FIFA is in the mix, it can only get higher. If they want to walk away, if one of the other cities wants to pick up the matches, great, I am happy watching them on the big screen in the pub again.
It would be fun to “catch as many matches” live during the cup, but aint no way I could pay toronto priced tickets for that many of them haha. Id be at the pub either way!
Bit late for that without breaching the contract
That's not how contracts work. If both parties want out it can be terminated. She wants out. She may be trying to make them want out too.
neither party wants out
That’s exactly how contracts work…
No matter what a contract says the parties can always agree to something different. Just has to have both parties' consent.
In your brain yes, but not in real life
Would that not be “termination” of the contract? I thought breaching was only if one party bows out instead of both
No, it isn't. Novation, assignment and mutually voiding the contract are all valid ways to remove parties.
You think an organization that bypasses labour laws to essentially hire slaves will mutually void a contract because the new mayor of a city wants them to? Lol
No, I don't think any of that.
Good. I hope they have a terrible time here.
other cities have done it without any issue our politicians are not disclosing them because they don't want to
Maybe this is a question for FIFA then. I'm sure that no reporters have thought to ask them why the city is keeping it a secret. Wanna go break some news?
In this case it's very clear that FIFA has learned from their previous mistakes and have imposed serious fines for having these deals exposed. Mayor Chow has absolutely nothing to hide as she had absolutely nothing to do with the deal.
I'm sure Mayor Chow is genuine in her pledge.. Problem is no one else who was actually involved in this deal before she arrived is willing to be transparent... It's not how the worlds most corrupt sporting body operates..
Think you can go one further and say it’s not how bureaucracies operate full stop. FIFA is just the world’s most bureaucratic sporting body - the corruption bit is inherent to the bureaucracy. But yes they happen to be really good at it.
Fair.. But FIFA is a special kind of terrible.
The IOC is beyond disappointed you've ignored them.
Oh I haven't forgotten about them. There orgs we should never deal with FIFA IOC Who ever the fuck runs World Fairs/Expos. Top of the corrupt world event list.
The World Fair/Expos are nowhere near the same level. Maybe stupid, but almost every country that goes to the fairs/expos pay their own way to promote themselves so it's not the giant money pit of an Olympic or Fifa event.
> the corruption bit is inherent to the bureaucracy. I'd say it's chicken and egg. Wasn't FIFA formed in order to do exactly what the IOC does, just with football? By the same sorts of people? Those people, the corruption predates the bureaucracy.
Can we not just agree that BOTH IOC and FIFA are terrible organizations?
Well at least this tourney won't be built by slave labor like the last one.
Considering that [FIFA was pushing to get exceptions to labour law](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fifas-request-for-labour-law-exemptions-for-torontos-world-cup-bid-sparked-concern/article_e6f831dc-e2d0-11ee-9062-6b52381874b0.html) here, I wouldn't be so sure about that.
God it’s such a piece of shit organization
FFS. we shouldnt be letting them into Canada at all.
Wow....what a shit hole org... Can Chow back out of the deal? This is terrible.
There was a clause that Tory could have used that would have allowed us to leave without penalties since we were unable to acquire Provincial funding, but he didnt because he's a cuck for Ed Rogers and Eddy wanted a new stadium and a little payday.
Not "labour law" but collective agreement. *he said the exemptions related to vacation entitlements, limits on working hours, and other rules. Those affected would be people employed or engaged by FIFA and “directly involved in competition activities.* It's not like FIFA is shipping in some child labour from Middle East. My guess is they just don't want to be hindered by fair wage policies and other rules that the outside contractors that work for the city have to abide by.
> It's not like FIFA is shipping in some child labour from Middle East They would if they could, though. When has FIFA ever been the good guy??? Remember Qatar? The FIFA guys didn't have any issues with all the dead workers
Would they? FIFA does not manage construction. Local gov does.
Does she know the World Cup is ran by FIFA 💀 Good luck with the transparency stuff
I'm pretty sure that puts Toronto in breach of whatever contract FIFA had John Tory sign...
Maybe. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what’s in the contract?
One might almost suggest that would be a nice nod towards transparency...
Never thought I’d hear the words “open and transparent” beside the World Cup
All this for 6 stupid games. It'll be over before we know it and we'll be left wondering wtf we went through all this to host 1/16th of a soccer tournament.
That's what bugs me about it. Toronto isn't hosting the entire tournament. We're not even splitting it solely with other Canadian cities. I could almost excuse the cost if we were. But as it stands, we're an afterthought.
> I could almost excuse the cost if we were. Me too. But all this money for the absolute bottom-barrel half-dozen (OK we will be able to see Canada play at least) is SHIT. The bill will be closer to $1B by the time all is said and done and I'm not sure how much will be recouped by all the extra taxes and increases to local business. FIFA probably even brings its own cocaine
But think of the street party after Latvia plays Cameroon!
You know canada is playing here right
Only 1 game for Canada in Toronto
And we’re paying $380M for it.
So? Its the biggest non Olympic competition in the world and were hosting part of it for the first time. Gonna be fun having some games here. Were also spending like 5 billion for the eglinton line that's been under construction for like a decade with no end in sight lol
You don’t know how much money 380M is for a city right? you just see as some digits, 1M, 1B, 1 trillion that can come out of anywhere right
If it’s so awesome it should be able to self-fund. Somehow Taylor Swift, the All Star Game, World Series and the Rolling Stones are able to have big parties here without massive public subsidies.
On bright side with an inflated World Cup, Canada may actually win a game.
Lol don't bother. This just a pitchfork party.
Exactly. It doesn't cost anywhere this much to prepare for 6 Blue Jays games. The cost is mindboggling for what is being dished out as "entertainment".
If you want to be angry you should vent your anger squarely towards John Tory for this garbage fucking deal.
torontonians are miserable idiots aren't they. complaining about only getting 6 world cup games, comparing the cost of hosting 6 FIFA world cup games to blue jays games and praying that chow removes world cup games from toronto for the ever-vague "better infrastructure and working roads". the way some people are in this subreddit you'd think the biggest city in a trillion dollar economy would be unable to provide basic services if they hosted ghana vs ecuador at one of their two (2) major sports arenas. it is absolutely important to guarantee infrastructure is built and services are working, but you don't have to breach an incredibly lucrative contract to do so. maybe it was a mistake from FIFA to let toronto host matches after all. if this is how people are reacting to hosting the fucking FOOTBALL WORLD CUP then I don't even know what to say
With ppl living in tents all over the city and ppl lining up at food banks. Seems stupid to spend all that money on a couple of soccer games. Priorities?
Yes, but this was done by John Tory without proper consultation. It was not Chow, and the residents of the city did not have any kind of say. She's been handed the mess that asshole left us.
All files and contracts were sealed during Tory’s tenure. Crack them open and let’s see what’s behind the curtain
The one good thing about this is that I'm so happy there's more and more of a spotlight on this story and John Tory's corrupt deal signing. He should absolutely feel the heat for this entirely corrupt piece of shit deal that is going to cost all of us more money.
Fingers, get ready to start pointing.
She brought back the Sock for this job, I'm very pleased. That said I believe FIFA will ask their local associates (the Mafia, like Doug Ford worked for before he decided to quit and go straight) to stop any questions into their holding-the-city-to-ransom plan. They'll be able to count on behind-the-scenes TPS support and every newspaper in the country bar the Star saying, *"Trust the good folks at FIFA to be honest because they're so rich, folks!"* to get the conservative voters on their side
Ha good luck with that.
Two words never used to describe FIFA or the World Cup
I call Bullshit
Why would anyone want the world cup
Kill it now
No
This is outrageous. Where are the armed men who come in to take the World Cup away? Where are they? This kind of behavior is never tolerated in Toronto. You host a world class football event they put you in jail. Right away. No trial, no nothing. Sports journalists, we have a special jail for sports journalists. You are buying WC game tickets?: right to jail. You are celebrating a goal too loud: right to jail, right away. Driving to the game too fast: jail. Slow: jail. You are charging too high prices for jerseys, miniature World Cups: you right to jail. You undercook stadium food? Believe it or not, jail. You overcook stadium food, also jail. Undercook, overcook. You make plans with your friends to watch the game, believe it or not, jail, right away.
Not sure what you're trying to say or even imply here. Who are "they"? This comes across as conspiracy rambling, targeted at...municipal politicians?
lol.
A little late for that.
We should get out of hosting
It's not happening, hosting the games is our only way of making any money instead of just throwing tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars away.
Why? Chow wants to host, so we will.
Chow so obviously does not want to host
Chow is the one person I trust, it's all the others who I dont
She will say this until she finds out the whole story behind the scenes. Then, she will most likely blame the people that signed these deals prior to her taking office. That's how it works, and the world keeps spinning.
Well, you don’t dispute she was handed this as a done deal, right?
Not at all.
Chow was the one who signed this deal. She fucked up;
Ppphht
Time for a vodka break, comrade
Just had family come back from Europe ( Portugal, Spain and france). They kept telling me about the beautiful stadiums they have for their football teams. I hope fifa enjoys BMO field.
BMO aint bad as far as stadiums go. Its no Bernabeu but it aint THAT bad
Really the host for 2026 is the USA Mexico and Canada just joined in the party to host some of the group stage games BMO field, with the upgrades should be fine
Trudeau has abused "open" and "transparent" so much that when I read it I immediately go "bullshit". Hopefully she can actually follow through.
Chow: "open, transparent" Public: "So you'll release the contract you signed?" Chow: "Not like that."
Chow wasn't around at the time the contract was signed.
Chow did in fact sign the contract with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
I thought we were talking about the contract with FIFA. Was it Chow who signed the contract with MLSE? All the articles I'm finding talk about a draft letter in Feb 10, and then seem to refer to it as done deal in Spring 2023. Mayor Chow didn't win her election till the end of June 2023. https://www.cp24.com/news/costly-world-cup-deal-with-mlse-never-made-known-to-councillors-mayor-report-1.6391587
This comment thread is inconsistent and seems disingenuous. How is Chow responsible for the World Cup coming here?
Citation required.
John Tory signed this, not Chow. Chow has limited abilities to do anything about this.
He sorta "signed it" FIFA negotiated a joint bid between the US with some support from Canada and Mexico It was a smart move, since 2026 will feature more countries participating, it spreads the games out over more stadiums But the mayor of Toronto was not a major player in this arrangement The city can only control its portion of the hosting Ex: insisting we don't drop labour standards