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    Default BMO Field - from 30k to 40k seats

    With the winning United bid for 2026, it looks like BMO Field will be in line for a substantial upgrade to get to at least 40k seats. What is the most likely way to achieve that? Closing in the corners? Expanding the south end into a second tier? What can be done with the north end, having been set further back to accommodate a CFL field. With eight years to go to the World Cup - when do you look at doing the renovation?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Canuck82 View Post
    With the winning United bid for 2026, it looks like BMO Field will be in line for a substantial upgrade to get to at least 40k seats. What is the most likely way to achieve that? Closing in the corners? Expanding the south end into a second tier? What can be done with the north end, having been set further back to accommodate a CFL field. With eight years to go to the World Cup - when do you look at doing the renovation?
    Man, they better make it nice and not just add in cheap filler seats...This is our chance to have a (nearly) world class stadium.

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    For temporary seats, they can always do what they did in Ekaterinburg Arena for this World Cup.


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    Quote Originally Posted by pfk View Post
    For temporary seats, they can always do what they did in Ekaterinburg Arena for this World Cup.

    what a lovely wall of death.

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    Quote Originally Posted by pfk View Post
    For temporary seats, they can always do what they did in Ekaterinburg Arena for this World Cup.

    You couldn't pay me to sit at the top up there.

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    Actually no guarantee ANY games will be in Toronto. FIFA will decide 16 cities out of a pool of 23.
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    Wouldn't be surprised to see temporary stands like they had for 2017 MLS Playoffs/Winter Classic....I don't know how they would have the room to expand 10k permanently on one side of the stadium, unless the plan is to do 5k on each end....

    Quote Originally Posted by Oldtimer View Post
    Actually no guarantee ANY games will be in Toronto. FIFA will decide 16 cities out of a pool of 23.
    True, but i can't see any situation where Toronto is not included, especially since BC was not included in the provisional list a few months back.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TFC Tifoso View Post
    Wouldn't be surprised to see temporary stands like they had for 2017 MLS Playoffs/Winter Classic....I don't know how they would have the room to expand 10k permanently on one side of the stadium, unless the plan is to do 5k on each end....



    True, but i can't see any situation where Toronto is not included, especially since BC was not included in the provisional list a few months back.
    the bid calls for 45,000 at BMO so 15K additional seats

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    Quote Originally Posted by troy1982 View Post
    were they speculating or did they know for sure?
    the bid book has BMO going to 45,000 by the way so 5,000 more than the MLS Cup.
    https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/w3...t5erw26wmu.pdf
    Quote Originally Posted by troy1982 View Post
    the bid calls for 45,000 at BMO so 15K additional seats
    According to Bill Manning, the bid called for temporary seating to bring it up to the FIFA minimum of 45k seats. No more. This is not speculation, it's from the top guy for BMO Field.

    He did not rule out the possibility of adding some permanent seats if it makes sense from a TFC perspective, but the World Cup has zero to do with whether they add any. He was very specific.
    Last edited by Oldtimer; 06-13-2018 at 12:51 PM.
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    Just listened to the stream. They are adding temporary seating like for the 2016 MLS Cup. No permanent seating.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oldtimer View Post
    Just listened to the stream. They are adding temporary seating like for the 2016 MLS Cup. No permanent seating.
    Actually what Bill said was they originally bid using the term Temporary Seating but will look to see if they need to make it permanent. That means TFC keeps winning and they keep selling tickets.

    Having said that though, I think 40K seating would leave a lot of empty seats. Lots of people go to the cottage in the summer and leave seats empty as it is now.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oldtimer View Post
    Just listened to the stream. They are adding temporary seating like for the 2016 MLS Cup. No permanent seating.
    were they speculating or did they know for sure?
    the bid book has BMO going to 45,000 by the way so 5,000 more than the MLS Cup.
    https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/w3...t5erw26wmu.pdf

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    And it'll be 45k for teh WC

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    The bid book has BMO field expanding to 45,000K, not 40,000

    https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/w3...t5erw26wmu.pdf

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    Quote Originally Posted by troy1982 View Post
    The bid book has BMO field expanding to 45,000K, not 40,000

    https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/w3...t5erw26wmu.pdf
    I've been trying to read through as much of this bid book as I can. It states that Canada will have 10 games to be played in three stadiums - 7 in the group stage - 2 in the round of 32 and 1 in the round of 16. One stadium will get 4 games while the other two get 3. Mexico will have the same.

    The US will have 60 games to be played in 10 stadiums.

    Of course something could change or be adjusted by FIFA but this is how the bid was proposed.

    Also, the proposed schedule shows one game is each country on opening night.

    Now the question is, do we get 3 games or 4 games. I believe the Big O and the Edmonton stadium both have turf which means they have to put down temporary grass. How does that hold up? Can it last for 4 games or does TO get the four games because we have a natural grass pitch. I'm still betting Montreal gets the 4 games due to the capacity of the Big O.

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    The proposal for BMO to bring the stadium to 45,000 was only based on added seating to the south stands including filling in the corners. It did not include any additional seating on the north side of the stadium. If they do add to the north the capacity could be higher I would think.

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    It be great if they used this as an Excuse to rebuild Lamport as a 18k stadium for the Wolfpack move the Argos there, and put a permanent north end stand with a mezzanine that can be used as support of temp seating, tear down the south and rebuild it as safe standing with permanent boxes taking permanent seating to 34k. Then put in 10.5k of Temp seating on the North and South. To do that the South Roof would have to be removed I suspect. (or raised at least)

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    The bid book is now something for wrapping dead fish in. They have to play games in Canada, that’s the only sure thing.

    Follow the money. Why would FIFA accept any stadium at 40K if they can replace it with a stadium seating 80K?

    I think FIFA will say to John Tory - Expand to 60K or we go to Montreal only. I would say the same about El Volcan, it has a high probability of getting dropped.
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    This is something I posted I long time ago in the World Cup bid thread... we have probably been mostly used in this process, I don't expect to see many games in Canada, any games in Toronto, or automatic qualification for Canada.

    Games in Canada/Toronto: nothing has been “guaranteed” to Canada, and the only thing FIFA care about is stadium size. 40K or 45K isn't enough. We are third on the list in Canada in any scenario. I have a funny feeling there will only be games in Montreal, why put games in Edmonton or Toronto when you can drop them and add a US stadium with 90K seats? Even if that's not true, I don't know how they get to 40K (or 45K!) without spending $100M or something. The Grey Cup temporary seating got them to 36K, it's not like there is anywhere else to put up meccano set seats. You could maybe get a couple of thousand more in the north end.

    Qualification: up to Concacaf. There is NO WAY we will get in automatically. Best case is that we automatically qualify for the play in tourney FIFA are talking about (32 of the 48 spots would come the traditional way, the other 16 come from a play in tournament the year before that replaces Confederation Cup). But even then I have my doubts...
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    Quote Originally Posted by troy1982 View Post
    the bid calls for 45,000 at BMO so 15K additional seats
    yup, see that....thanks.....

    Quote Originally Posted by ensco View Post
    This is something I posted I long time ago in the World Cup bid thread... we have probably been mostly used in this process, I don't expect to see many games in Canada, any games in Toronto, or automatic qualification for Canada.

    Games in Canada/Toronto: nothing has been “guaranteed” to Canada, and the only thing FIFA care about is stadium size. 40K or 45K isn't enough. We are third on the list in Canada in any scenario. I have a funny feeling there will only be games in Montreal, why put games in Edmonton or Toronto when you can drop them and add a US stadium with 90K seats? Even if that's not true, I don't know how they get to 40K (or 45K!) without spending $100M or something. The Grey Cup temporary seating got them to 36K, it's not like there is anywhere else to put up meccano set seats. You could maybe get a couple of thousand more in the north end.

    Qualification: up to Concacaf. There is NO WAY we will get in automatically. Best case is that we automatically qualify for the play in tourney FIFA are talking about (32 of the 48 spots would come the traditional way, the other 16 come from a play in tournament the year before that replaces Confederation Cup). But even then I have my doubts...
    Well, reading a breakdown of the bid showed 10 games each in Mexico and Canada, and none from the QF on.....imo, it wouldn't make sense to include them in the bid, only to use 1 city as a host....I think Canada will get 2-3 host cities (Toronto, Montreal, and Edmonton or Calgary)
    Just for comparison, only 3 stadiums to be used in Russia are above 45k gross capacity, and 2 of those 3 above 48k....
    Qualification might be interesting to see how its done.....
    Last edited by TFC Tifoso; 06-13-2018 at 12:35 PM.

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    I actually think because it's up to FIFA that there will be plenty of games in Canada. I wouldn't be surprise if they try to downplay a bit of the overwhelmingly US-centric aspect of this bid due to it being a previous host, current global political climate, and the fact that orginally 2026 was intended to be Canada's bid.

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    I wonder if their plans for safe standing in the south will be put on hold until after 2026 now.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Couchy81 View Post
    I wonder if their plans for safe standing in the south will be put on hold until after 2026 now.
    Safe standing implies special seats that can be up or locked down. If they go ahead they will just lock the seats down for the WC. I believe all seaters are also required for the CCL, though I'm not 100% sure on that.
    Last edited by Oldtimer; 06-13-2018 at 12:52 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oldtimer View Post
    Safe standing implies special seats that can be up or locked down. If they go ahead they will just lock the seats down for the WC. I believe all seaters are also required for the CCL, though I'm not 100% sure on that.
    Excellent. Yes I believe you are correct, I think some stadiums in the U.S. with older bench seating in the upper bowls will need replacements.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Couchy81 View Post
    I wonder if their plans for safe standing in the south will be put on hold until after 2026 now.
    I kind of doubt it.
    if someone is paying like $500 CDN for a ticket...they'll probably want somewhere to place their bum.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ensco View Post
    This is something I posted I long time ago in the World Cup bid thread... we have probably been mostly used in this process, I don't expect to see many games in Canada, any games in Toronto, or automatic qualification for Canada.

    Games in Canada/Toronto: nothing has been “guaranteed” to Canada, and the only thing FIFA care about is stadium size. 40K or 45K isn't enough. We are third on the list in Canada in any scenario. I have a funny feeling there will only be games in Montreal, why put games in Edmonton or Toronto when you can drop them and add a US stadium with 90K seats? Even if that's not true, I don't know how they get to 40K (or 45K!) without spending $100M or something. The Grey Cup temporary seating got them to 36K, it's not like there is anywhere else to put up meccano set seats. You could maybe get a couple of thousand more in the north end.

    Qualification: up to Concacaf. There is NO WAY we will get in automatically. Best case is that we automatically qualify for the play in tourney FIFA are talking about (32 of the 48 spots would come the traditional way, the other 16 come from a play in tournament the year before that replaces Confederation Cup). But even then I have my doubts...
    They had just over 40 for the winter classic. What TFC will probably do, is add 5,000 permanent seats. Where? That I do not know. I hope if they can, it would be to the corners, but I doubt that.

    As for qualifying, they will get an auto spot. Look at 2002 as an example. Korea and Japan co hosted that one and both got in. That was a 32 team tourney. It’s going to be a 48 team tourney in 2026. They will not be stupid enough to leave these 3 teams to qualify for themselves. There is no presitant of FIFA every doing that.

    I’m very curious of what this means for BMO Field. I think 30,000 is perfect right now for TFC. Can they play in 35,000 seat stadium in 8 years and continue to sell out? Great question.

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    Right now Concacaf has 3 spots out of the 32 spots in the world cup. The latest proposal I heard is that with 48 teams concacaf would have 6 spots. With this change I don't see any reason why Canada, the US and Mexico would not get automatic spots in 2026. It still leaves the same 3 spots we currently have for other concacaf teams to get. And they would not be fighting Mexico and the US for the 3 spots. (plus there is a potential for a 7th spot through a play in game).

    I like the suggested structure of 16 groups of 3 with the top two teams in each group moving on to one game elimination rounds. The tournament would take the same length of time.

    Apparently, the video reel that was played for the United Bid heavily featured BMO when referencing Canada. How can Toronto not end up getting at least a couple of the 10 games to be played in Canada?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Captain View Post
    Apparently, the video reel that was played for the United Bid heavily featured BMO when referencing Canada.
    That might be because there's no way they would put Montreal's stadium in the footage (at least the inside), and at least Toronto you have a beautiful venue with a great soccer specific crowd (at full capacity no less). Great visuals. Edmonton could be overflow footage.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Captain View Post
    Right now Concacaf has 3 spots out of the 32 spots in the world cup. The latest proposal I heard is that with 48 teams concacaf would have 6 spots. With this change I don't see any reason why Canada, the US and Mexico would not get automatic spots in 2026. It still leaves the same 3 spots we currently have for other concacaf teams to get. And they would not be fighting Mexico and the US for the 3 spots. (plus there is a potential for a 7th spot through a play in game).
    Quote Originally Posted by ensco View Post
    ...Qualification: up to Concacaf. There is NO WAY we will get in automatically...
    With our lowly world rankings in recent years, it's difficult to argue that Canada would deserve to automatically be there on merit. Why would all those other CONCACAF nations be happy to let Canada undeservedly get into the tournament automatically and reduce the number of available CONCACAF qualifiers by one?
    There is no precedent for a World Cup hosted by three nations. As I asked on the V's board, what if, many years down the road, there was a united bid to host from a group of five Caribbean or Central American nations? Do you think Canada would like the idea of allowing all of them to get in automatically?
    Maybe automatic qualification for host nations could involve being required to be at some minimal level in FIFA rankings.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Heepster View Post
    With our lowly world rankings in recent years, it's difficult to argue that Canada would deserve to automatically be there on merit. Why would all those other CONCACAF nations be happy to let Canada undeservedly get into the tournament automatically and reduce the number of available CONCACAF qualifiers by one?
    There is no precedent for a World Cup hosted by three nations. As I asked on the V's board, what if, many years down the road, there was a united bid to host from a group of five Caribbean or Central American nations? Do you think Canada would like the idea of allowing all of them to get in automatically?
    Maybe automatic qualification for host nations could involve being required to be at some minimal level in FIFA rankings.
    If Canada has to qualify, then US and Mexico should also have to qualify.

    If what we have seen is true, and Concacaf is going from 3.5 spots to 6.5 in 2026, it's really a wash for the other nations - and with Mexico out of the running it actually opens another spot for one of the others.

    Ultimately, we await our fate as Fifa has to decide what it wants to do. This is going to be a long 8 years...
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