Given the recent deluge of BS from local FIFA organizers, I wonder if Mayor Olivia Chow realizes she’s strayed into the middle of a political minefield masquerading as a soccer pitch.
Thanks to the city’s bewildering attempt to toll the much-hyped “free” Fan Festival and Chow’s mealy-mouthed response at executive committee on Wednesday, my guess is that next week’s council meeting could degenerate into a brawl about soccer, the mayoral election, hotel vacancies, the budget and all the other aspects of Toronto’s civic life that are or will be upended by our teeny slice of the World Cup.
After watching the video of the committee meeting, I’m not sure the mayor recognizes the stakes, or at least understands that city staff, and all the various special interests working behind the scenes, have led her to the cusp of a moment that feels deeply symbolic of not just her leadership but the city’s inability to plan for an event that’s been eight years in the making.
Everyone by now knows the price escalation issue, with the city’s commitment now topping $380 million, well north of what we originally agreed to. One of the stipulations from the get-go was a Fan Fest, a free space around Fort York and the Bentway, where locals who can’t afford three- or four-digit tickets can watch games, not unlike Jurassic Park in front of Scotia Bank arena, but large enough to hold 20,000 people.
Now, it turns out, FIFA — which is at least as corrupt as the International Olympic Committee — has decided that Toronto’s FanFest is going to be extra special in some unspecified way, which means the budget has to jump from $16 million to $25 million — a 56% increase, to be recouped by ticket sales (from $10 for general admission to $300 for VIPs) to get in to what was promised to be a free venue.
(The city and FIFA outsourced the operation of FanFest to a local consortium, which includes The Fifth Social Club, a Richmond Street bar; event designers DBA Rendezvous w/ Candice & Alison, booking agents One Twenty Eight, event marketer Loft Entertainment, and brand partnership promotor Paquin Entertainment Group.)
At committee, there were multiple and contradictory explanations to explain away a rather impressive about face: pressure from police agencies worried about crowd control, the (apparently unforeseen) cost of offering online ticketing, and certainty for soccer fans trekking in to fest.
The city official in charge of FIFA, Sharon Bollenbach, also offered up this chestnut in response to pointed questions from Josh Matlow about how a free event became, well, unfree: “There seemed to be a price point where people…take the ticketing seriously. They show up, they take the event and the attendance at the event more seriously when they have made some contribution and have put out some money for a ticket.”
Bollenbach, who worked for the Special Olympics and FIFA U-20 and the Canadian Olympic Committee before joining the city in 2023, also told the committee that her team had already given away a bunch comps to sponsors — about 20% of all the spots that will be available at Fan Fest. “The decision was made” — note the tell-tale passive tense here — “to have some corporate packages available.”
With Brad Bradford barking about how the city broke its promises and some of Chow’s allies downplaying the impact of these new prices, the mayor tried to sort out the confusion with a motion requesting Bollenbach to come up with a plan, in time for next week’s council session, outlining “details on the planned free community access to FanFest including the approximately 11,000 free tickets being provided to community groups.”
But her explanation of what she actually wants, and why, was almost incomprehensible (see 4:34 and onwards from the meeting video). What’s more, it certainly revealed that Chow has missed the capital-L lesson here, which is that the city promised a free watch party for the duration and is now reneging for a bunch of reasons that sound like ex post facto justifications for a hefty hike in the contract fee.
Turns out that Ticketmaster will be adding a $1 per ticket, that there should, in Chow’s view, be no cost for general admission, except in some areas, like for food concessions, where the city might impose an admission fee. “I prefer that we don’t have to charge $10 but there might be areas where you need to do that,” she said to a question from Shelley Carroll about what will and won’t be tolled in the Fan Fest zone. “I don’t know…I’m not the expert.”
Chow, in my view, has gotten lost in the weeds here, when what she really needs to do — in an election year, with a global event that commands a huge local audience and panting media coverage — is not just be clear, but also to deliver on a promise the city naively agreed to back in the John Tory era. Hedging over a few million dollars and trusting bureaucrats who evidently pay more attention to corporate sponsors than the city’s best interests doesn’t cut it.
I was never a fan of our involvement in the FIFA World Cup, and it doesn’t surprise me a bit that this organization and the companies riding its coattails are reaching deep into the city’s pockets to see what else they can grab.
Thing is, Chow doesn’t get to choose the circumstances she finds herself in. This isn’t just another council file to be massaged and closed off. It’s a kleig lights leadership moment. And from what I can see, the mayor is in the process of winding up to score an epic own-goal.
