John Bitove is expecting an explosion of sorts. He has seen the way Canadians reacted in the past. He has witnessed the passion in this country for international sport. He is fully expecting the World Cup to be an enormous success across Canada — as short as the experience might wind up being.
Bitove's Vision for World Cup Success
“You watch what will happen,” said Bitove, the original owner of the Toronto Raptors and builder of Scotiabank Arena, who also bid unsuccessfully on Toronto’s behalf for the 2008 Summer Olympics. “There’s going to be record TV ratings, the way there were record ratings when the Blue Jays were in the World Series and when the Raptors were in the NBA Finals in 2019.
“One third of the country was watching the Blue Jays last fall on TV, one third of the country was watching the Raptors in 2019 and, if you want to go back, similar numbers were watching Donovan Bailey at the ’96 Olympics in Atlanta.
“That’s what we do as Canadians. We did it in Vancouver with the Olympics and then it went off the charts for the gold medal hockey game. There aren’t many countries with an appetite for international sport, big international sport, the way Canada has an appetite for it.”
Why Canada's Opener in Toronto Matters So Much
Team Canada begins play at the FIFA World Cup on Friday afternoon. By Friday night, the Toronto World Cup that we care most about is over — it’s quick in and quick out and almost no time for momentum to build in the city.
It would be a little like hosting a Summer Olympics and having the men’s 100 metres run on the very first night. It’s peaking a little early and that’s why the Canada game means so much aside from a soccer result — it’s an event-building result for Canada, for the country, not just the team.
The three games Team Canada plays in this country should lead to additional games elsewhere. That’s the hope. But until the games are played, until there are results, until we know precisely who is fit and who isn’t for Team Canada, it’s hard to know where the most talented Canadian side in history is heading.
“The reality is, there is one game in Toronto and that’s it,” Bitove said. “And then two games in Vancouver. And if they win the first game in Toronto, for example, I think people are going to go absolutely nuts across Canada. Even if they lose the first game and the second and third games mean something, I think you’ll still have huge audiences in the stadium and watching on TV. I think you’ll see record TV ratings the way we’ve seen them before because that’s what Canadians do.”
Ticket Prices and Legacy Concerns
The United States is 10 times the size of Canada in terms of population. On average, that should mean that the audience to watch something similar should be 10 times larger as well. Game 7 of the World Series had 10.9 million Canadians tuned in. Game 7 in America drew 27.3 million. The U.S. audience was less than three times what the Canadian audience was.
Not everything, though, about this World Cup is terrific. It never is with giant sporting events of any kind.
“I think FIFA blew it with the prices,” said Bitove, who once charged seat licenses for original Raptors season tickets. “You look right now, there are lots of tickets for sale (online) and prices are dropping. And there are lots of hotel rooms available, much more than you’d think. FIFA chose to sell as many tickets as it could for as high a price as it could. This wasn’t people-friendly.
“I also think that’s what happens when you have it as spread out as this World Cup is. Dollars became the largest factor in putting on this event.”
‘Obscene’ Ticket Prices Hurts the Fans
Paul Henderson, who bid and lost on the ’96 Olympics for Toronto and won on the Pan-American Games years later, believes the ticket pricing for this World Cup is “obscene.”
“What’s the legacy of this World Cup going to be in Canada?” the 92-year-old Henderson said. “Ticket prices that the average Canadian can’t afford.”
Bitove is more political about the process than Henderson happens to be. Not only has he been involved in international sports in the past, but he, as a sports fan, has taken in so many events of significance over the years.
He was in Qatar four years ago and calls it one of the great sporting events of his life.
“It was an incredible experience,” Bitove said. “Everything worked so well. They did a tremendous job on that event. The weather was fantastic. You only needed to stay in one hotel. You didn’t have to move around at all.
“It would have been better, legacy-wise, for Canada if we hosted the entire World Cup and put it in 12 different cities. It’s easier to put on a World Cup than an Olympics. There are so many sports and so many venues and so many more security needs for an Olympics, it’s a lot different for soccer when you only have to worry about one stadium and two teams that day.”
Changing Expectations
But that said, it all comes back to how Canada has changed over the years. In 1976, Montreal hosted the Summer Olympics without Canada winning a gold medal. In 1988, Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics without Canada winning a gold medal.
Everything changed heading into Vancouver 2010, where Canada wound up leading the Games with 14 gold medals won. The sporting expectations of a nation changed then. Winning suddenly mattered. Competing at the highest level mattered even more.
Hosting a World Cup is nice although stupidly expensive, both in terms of cost of tickets and taxpayer expenditures. Advancing in this World Cup is even nicer. And we’ll be watching no matter what. That’s what we do.
