The final plans are on hold as the first match of the FIFA World Cup in Toronto approaches – in Toronto
After years of planning and preparation, Toronto’s opening match of the FIFA World Cup is now just 100 days away.
On June 12 at 3 p.m., tens of thousands will descend on Exhibition Place to watch Canada play its first international soccer tournament.
However, their opponents are yet to be decided. The match in late March will determine whether Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Northern Ireland will compete in that game.
At the end of June and the first week of July, Toronto will also host matches involving countries such as Ghana, Germany, Croatia and Senegal.
The city final will be in the round of 32 on July 2.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose government is putting $97 million into hosting the tournament, said the provincial money will help with health care and safety costs.
“We have committed almost 100 million dollars to make sure that we attract everyone around the world with FIFA. It will be amazing. A big part of that will be security, another part of it – if you have hundreds of thousands of visitors – health care. Hospitals will need support,” Ford said at an unrelated event on Monday.
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“Toronto, Ontario, is on the map. People from all over the world come here.”
About $100 million will also come from the federal government, while the City of Toronto pays the remaining $170 million for the games.
The city will lead the work with FIFA to prepare Toronto for the World Cup.
Officials expect to see traffic get at least 10 percent worse on the city’s corridors during the competition, especially towards the end of the game, and are considering limiting parking options and putting in place road closures or construction bans to ensure people can get around.
Toronto will also rely heavily on its streetcar network to get people to and from games, and the TTC is currently racing to get Bathurst Street ready to handle thousands of soccer fans.
The streetcar in Bathurst feeds on the side of BMO Field Stadium and is at the center of Toronto’s thousands of roundabouts. To do that, officials are looking to increase service along the line.
The route was designated as a RapidTO project, along with the Dufferin Street bus, last year to create red-painted priority lanes where transit can run without traffic congestion. The overheads will also be raised so that streetcars can run approximately every five minutes during the FIFA celebrations.
To accommodate that, the city is testing the electrical grid to ensure that the higher systems will be able to handle the increased service.
The city is set to announce its full traffic plan in March and will hold a free celebration Tuesday evening to mark 100 days until the games begin.
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