Renovation of a stadium in Toronto, Ontario. Completed plans call for the renovation of a stadium.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2024/02/04/houston-2026-fifa-world-cup-matches.html Houston will host seven total matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, FIFA announced on Feb. 4. Each of Houston's matches will be played at NRG Stadium, starting with a group-stage match on June 14, 2026. The city will host four other group-stage matches on June 17, 20, 23 and 26, 2026. The city will then host single-elimination knockout games during the round of 32 and the round of 16. Those two matches will be held on June 29, 2026, and July 4, 2026, respectively. "We were going to be excited no matter what happened," Chris Canetti, Harris County-Houston Sports Authority executive and president of the Houston 2026 World Cup Host Committee, told the Houston Business Journal after the announcement. "We already had the good news that the World Cup was coming to Houston since June 2022." The U.S., Canada and Mexico are jointly hosting the 2026 World Cup, which will be played between June 11, 2026, and July 19, 2026. Since FIFA announced the 16 host cities in June 2022, there has been limited clarity for the cities until the Feb. 4 announcement. Last month, speculation surfaced that AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, would host the final game. Although that honor ultimately went to MetLife Stadium in the New York-New Jersey area, AT&T Stadium will host nine games -- the most of any site. The 2026 World Cup will be the largest iteration ever of the tournament. In early 2023, FIFA announced that the tournament would be expanded to include 48 nations in the competition, which will be split into 12 groups of four teams for the group stage. A total of 104 games will be played over the course of the competition. With the expansion, this is the first time the tournament will feature a round of 32. "We certainly wanted to receive some knockout-stage (games). They are the most exciting matches of all," Canetti said. "To have two of those coming to Houston will certainly be special and spectacular." It's unclear how much economic impact the 2026 World Cup will generate for the Houston area. Canetti said the city did a previous economic impact survey, which showed that hosting five matches of the tournament would create about $1.3 billion in economic impact. The city plans to do another survey to determine a more accurate estimate now that the official match schedule has been released. Canetti said the best way to think about it is to compare the World Cup matches to the 2017 NFL Super Bowl, which was hosted in Houston and generated $347 million in economic impact. Whereas the Super Bowl is one game with one week of ancillary events leading up to it, the 2026 World Cup is bringing seven Super Bowl-sized matches and multiple weeks of events for each game. "When you take into account what the Super Bowl meant for the city and now when you start to factor in seven games over the course of multiple weeks, it's going to be a substantial economic impact," Canetti said. The tournament will kick off in Mexico City at El Stadio Azteca on June 11, 2026. The Canadian and U.S. opening matches will be both be played on June 12, 2026, with Toronto's BMO's stadium hosting Canada's first match and Los Angeles' Sofi Stadium hosting the first U.S. game. Prior to the tournament's final at MetLife Stadium on July 19, 2026, the third-place match will be held in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium on July 18, 2026. Los Angeles, Kansas City, Boston and Miami will each host one quarterfinal match, while Arlington and Atlanta will host the two semifinal games. One of the Houston host committee's top priorities in 2024 is finalizing a venue and plan for the fan festival to be hosted alongside the games, Canetti said. FIFA recently made changes to the fan fest to allow host cities to take more control over their own events, Sports Business Journal reported last month. The new guidance would allow host cities more flexibility regarding the amount of space needed for the event and how many days it needs to be open, Canetti said. Additionally, the host committee is working with FIFA, NRG Park and various architects to finalize a plan for potential renovations at NRG Stadium, Canetti said. It's unclear whether the venue will need to undergo renovations at all ahead of the 2026 World Cup, but if it does, that construction would likely occur in the summer of 2025, he said. The most pressing change that needs to be made is installing a grass field in line with FIFA's regulations, but that won't occur until after the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is done using the venue in early 2026. While the 2026 World Cup is still over two years away, Houston is taking advantage of the lead-up to the event by hosting multiple other international soccer tournaments. For instance, the city will welcome the inaugural Concacaf W Gold Cup and CONMEBOL Copa America tournaments this year. ____________________ Acting as an agent of The City of Toronto (the "City") Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Partnership ("MLSE") has issued this Request for Qualification ("RFQ"). The purpose of this RFQ is to shortlist construction management firms capable of providing the preconstruction and construction services required for BMO Field ("Toronto Stadium") to host the FIFA World Cup Games in 2026. Firms who are deemed qualified will advance to a formal RFP process following this RFQ. The execution of this work is currently scheduled for 3 phases. Phase 1 will be between December 2024 and March 2025. Phase 2 will be between December 2025 and March 2026. Phase 3 will be between July 2026 and September 2026. Official bid documents must be obtained from www.merx.com and bid submissions must be done through the Merx platform. Question Acceptance Deadline:2023/12/12 04:00:00 PM EST