Josh Matlow says hosting the World Cup is “a horrible deal for our citizens”
The city councillor was in favour of Toronto’s World Cup matches, until he saw the price tag
Toronto city councillor Josh Matlow is telling us how he really feels about the FIFA World Cup coming to Toronto this summer.
“Looking back, it was a horrible deal for our citizens,” Matlow told Radio-Canada’s Enquête, in a story about why Montreal didn’t join Toronto and Vancouver in hosting the Canadian World Cup matches. According to the story, Montreal withdrew from World Cup consideration in 2021.
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Matlow lamented that Toronto initially intended to spend between $30 and $45 million for its portion of World Cup matches, but that the cost has ballooned to around $380 million. Enquête estimated that in Vancouver, the cost will be around $624 million for the city’s seven matches, up from an original estimate of $240 million.
He also noted that, because FIFA does not want brand names on participating stadiums, BMO Field will be temporarily renamed as Toronto Stadium. Construction work at BMO Field included the addition of 15,000 seats for the games.
“We gave them a blank cheque,” Matlow said. “It’s the worst agreement I’ve ever seen.”
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
