Etobicoke park stands to lose FIFA funding, training facility in bid to contain World Cup costs

Etobicoke’s Centennial Park will get half the world-class soccer training facilities it was first promised as part of Toronto’s FIFA World Cup plans, under a staff proposal to pull funding from the site to offset growing capital costs at BMO Field.

“We want to stay on time and on budget,” Budget Chief Shelley Carroll told CTV News Toronto. “And any place FIFA says, ‘That’s over requirement, we can trim that’ – we’re doing it.”

The sprawling west-end park was originally intended to be the site of two practice pitches and two fieldhouses for the 2026 tournament – a design that was being incorporated into a broader revitalization of the greenspace.

FIFA, though, has now downgraded the number of training facilities required in Toronto, freeing up funding for a city struggling to foot the broader bill.

According to a new staff report, the cost of capital work at BMO Field – which will be called “Toronto Stadium” during the tournament – has surpassed initial estimates, which can, in part, be offset by eliminating a practice pitch and a fieldhouse in Centennial Park.

“The City is now going to have to backfill that money and manage the pressure about the planned and ongoing work in the park,” Stephen Holyday, the councillor for Etobicoke Centre, told CTV Toronto.

Holyday described the World Cup as a catalyst to undertake previously-identified capital projects.

“And much of that work has been built into the sticker price of FIFA,” Holyday said.

The latest price tag pegs the cost of Toronto’s hosting duties at $380 million. Provincial and federal contributions total roughly $201 million, but the City remains on the hook for the rest.

Toronto has identified about $84 million in existing municipal revenue sources, such as rights sales and rental fees, and staff have suggested a 14-month, 2.5-per cent increase to the municipal accommodation tax to generate another $57 million.

The revised cost of the Centennial Park training facility was still being examined, Holyday said.

“FIFA’s recent reduction in training site requirements will help to streamline efforts and reduce capital and operational costs, while still delivering a world-class training facility,” Sharon Bollenbach, executive director of FIFA World Cup 2026 at the City of Toronto, told CTV Toronto in a statement.

“The whole sales job of these big international events is that they should be leaving our communities better than they found it,” Coun. Josh Matlow said. “They should be adding more services, more infrastructure.”

Toronto touted legacy infrastructure like sporting facilities and housing that outlasted the Pan-Am Games in 2015, and many municipal officials have highlighted hopes for similar success with the FIFA World Cup 2026.

But Carroll stressed that there is simply no room in the budget for extras.

“We can’t look at World Cup as this is a fund somewhere else, and it’s a windfall. It has to deliver a fantastic event, and that’s its focus,” Carroll said.

The Centennial Park FIFA training facility is in the final design and tendering phases, according to the city, with completion slated for March 2026.