Latest news with #Bollenbach
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
City Hall committees warn of money woes one year before World Cup
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.' As with Ryerson's name, TMU will replace Dundas at subway station City homeless report sees crisis, dismisses public with 'lazy' language Titanic exhibition coming to Toronto at end of June 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@
CBC
19-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Toronto wants to spend $10.7M on World Cup ticket packages and re-sell them for a profit
Toronto's 2026 FIFA World Cup committee wants to spend nearly $11 million on ticket packages for the upcoming games and resell them at marked up prices, with some councillors saying the move would amount to "scalping" with taxpayers' money. FIFA controls tickets to the games, and as a host city, Toronto has been given the opportunity to buy up some of the packages, which include tickets to the games, access to hospitality suites and other amenities at the stadium, before they're made available to private ticket sellers. The $10.7-million plan heads to council next week for final approval. "We're now acting like a Stub Hub," Coun. Jon Burnside said after Tuesday's committee meeting. "There are certain things governments shouldn't be involved in, and scalping tickets — which is really what this is — is one of those questionable activities." Coun. Josh Matlow, long a critic of the deal the city agreed to with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in 2022, has also criticized the outlay, saying it's a sign the city is desperate to find ways of covering its World Cup costs. "It's clear that the city signed such a bad deal (with FIFA) that it's been left to have to recoup costs by becoming a scalper," he said. Climbing costs In June 2022, FIFA awarded Toronto the right to host five first round games plus one playoff round match during the 2026 World Cup. The remaining games will be hosted by Vancouver, Mexico and the United States. At that time, the cost to Toronto was estimated at about $300 million. It has since climbed to $380 million, about $200 million of which is being provided by the federal and provincial governments. City staff have said preparing suitable venues, inflation, security, and safety costs are the reason for most of the expenses. Sharon Bollenbach, executive director of Toronto's FIFA World Cup 26 Secretariat, said it makes sense for the city to take advantage of its opportunity to buy up hospitality suites for re-sale later. "There's no point leaving money sitting on the table," she told CBC Toronto. "We as host city have the option to be selling hospitality packages." Bollenbach said the secretariat is in the midst of negotiations with organizations that could be interested in buying those game packages. She said about 10 of the packages will be sold by the city, each of them curated to the buyer's needs. She wouldn't say how much the city is asking for the packages, or who the potential buyers are. "They could be individuals, but typically the price point that they're at, this is typically as hospitality for their employees, for their clients, to be part of the World Cup experience here in Toronto." Move could be a 'big money-maker': councillor At yesterday's meeting, Coun. Anthony Peruzza asked why the secretariat was only interested in buying $10.7 million worth of games packages. "This sounds like a big money-maker to me," he told the meeting. Later, Bollenbach told CBC Toronto the city retains the right to buy more tickets as the World Cup dates draw closer. Bollenbach said it's not yet clear what the potential revenue from the Toronto games could be. That could depend on the popularity of the teams assigned to play in Toronto, Burnside said, and that schedule won't be released until later this year. Without knowing which teams will be playing in the city, it's impossible to say what the fan interest will be, Burnside said.
