Edmonton pleads with Alberta for World Cup funds as Vancouver announces renewed bid

The mayor of Edmonton is continuing to push the provincial government to support the city's 2026 World Cup bid as his counterpart in Vancouver announced up to $5 million toward that city's efforts.

Amarjeet Sohi told CTV News Edmonton the city still doesn't have a funding commitment from Alberta.

"We will continue to explore and continue to try to convince the province that this is good for the city, this is good for Alberta. This provides us an opportunity to a global platform to showcase what Edmonton has to offer," Sohi said.

"I think it's really important from an economic point of view, economic growth and recovery point of view. So we will continue to try to convince that this is a worthy initiative that they should be supporting."

TORONTO, VANCOUVER…EDMONTON?

The 2026 World Cup will be played in several cities across Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Toronto has long been thought to be a lock to host matches, and Vancouver is back in the running after Mayor Kenney Stewart said his city would spend up to $5 million on its bid.

With arguably the best soccer venue in Canada in BC Place and support from all levels of government, Kennedy called hosting "a real possibility."

"You will see, if everything goes right, Vancouver on the list of host cities.”

FIFA could still choose Edmonton as a host city even if Toronto and Vancouver are picked, too, but the city needs to secure more funds first.

"We don't have the capacity, the financial resources to bid without the backing of the provincial government," Sohi said.

"Other cities, I understand, have the backing of the provincial government — we don't. We need that backing in order for Edmonton to be a successful city in bidding for FIFA World Cup 2026."

WAITING ON ALBERTA

Sohi says the province hasn't updated the city on its request.

Council hoped Alberta would set aside money for the bid in its budget in February, but that didn't happen.

"The deadline has been extended once. There is a deadline. At the current time, we're on schedule with that," Culture Minister Ron Orr said.

"Our ultimate goal, from the province's side, is quite frankly to make sure we have the best deal possible we can for Alberta."

It's unclear when FIFA will announce the host cities, though officials from soccer's international governing body have been visiting North American candidates for evaluations.

FIFA officials were in Edmonton last November for Canada's 2022 World Cup matches against Costa Rica and Mexico at a snowy Commonwealth Stadium.

Colin Smith, FIFA’s chief competitions and events officer, was generally positive about the city and venues but was to the point on the artificial turf at Commonwealth Stadium.

“Change it,” he told reporters. “We play the World Cup obviously on natural grass.”

The City of Edmonton launched a survey in August of 2020 to measure how Edmontonians felt about hosting part of the tournament.

Survey results showed 77 per cent of people in the Edmonton region supported a bid, the city said, up from 74 per cent in 2018.

FIFA is expected to choose up to 16 cities.

With files from Matthew Black, Carlyle Fiset and CTV News Vancouver