Bread not circuses

The CSA made the right call to stay away from the 2027 World Cup bid

Women's World Cup

As I sat down to write this blog, Earl Cochrane resigned his position at the CSA. I will have a full post on this tomorrow.

When Toronto bid for the 1996 Olympics there was a very well organized and effective group opposed to the bid. Calling themselves “Bread Not Circuses” their message was simple. That is, that Toronto had too many problems to fix to be bidding for an Olympic Games. The money that would be spent on the bid and on hosting would be better focused on dealing with declining social services, homelessness, a TTC in decline, etc.

The message resonated with enough people that there was a noticeable opposition to the bid when it came time for the IOC to visit the city. That, in turn, took a bid that was very good in every other way ,from being a frontrunner, to being an also ran.

Atlanta ended up winning the 1996 Games and, as much as I personally supported the bid, I will acknowledge that the city probably dodged a bullet. The 1996 Games are viewed as one of the most bloated and economically disastrous of all time. Some of that was on choices made in Atlanta, but a lot of it was also on the time and what the Olympics were in 1996. That was the peak of the BE BIG games era.

News this week that Canada is not part of a joint bid to host the 2027 World Cup made me think of that time again. It also made me wonder whether we are finally learning our lesson in this country — that we don’t need to host big things to drive progress.

Or, at least, that maybe we’ve reached the point of diminishing returns on doing so. After all, there aren’t many countries of our size that have hosted three Olympic Games and two World Cups.

There aren’t many countries of any size who have. Off the top of my head, that would be five: Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the USA.

I’m not someone who thinks there’s no value in hosting events. Quite the opposite. There absolutely is. To a point. With Canada, that point is likely come. We don’t need further exposure for the sport. We could use more infrastructure, but none would get built for this joint bid. BMO Field and BC Place would just get used again. We would, after all, only be a year past the 2026 World Cup games being held there.

No, all a 2027 co-host spot would be is a party — a circus that the CSA can’t really afford right now. We need to focus on the bread for a while.

Don’t get me wrong, I like parties. I quite enjoyed the 2015 World Cup and I’m very much looking forward to the 2026 World Cup, as well. I just recognize that there should be other spending priorities for the CSA right now. I think we all should realize that.

If we hadn’t hosted the women’s tournament less than a decade ago, there would be an argument that failing to get on board for this co-bid was sexist. Well, it wouldn’t be an argument so much as a statement of fact. However, we did. Eight years is not long enough between hosting an event of that size. It should be spread around (in fact, I’m not crazy about the USA bidding again, but I under$tand why they are part of this).

Even if Canada was interested in being part of the bid, it’s entirely possible that the USA and Mexico gently suggested they take a pass. Having a country that hosted less than a decade ago attached to the bid could very well hurt the chances of winning.

Whatever the reason, this just isn’t a time to be attaching ourselves to yet another circus. It’s time to bake some bread.

Notes: I would be remiss to not mention TSS Rovers remarkable upset of Valour in the Voyageurs Cup yesterday. It represented the first D3 win over a fully professional team in the tournament.

It feels like another right of passage for the little cup that could. It’s come a long way from the fan-awarded challenge competition that it was in the early 2000s.

On a day where we see the CSA leadership continuing to fall on its sword, it’s good to remember that the sport has come a log way this century. It’s truly amazing that there even is a supporter owned club operating at the D3 level, let alone that they could pull an upset off over a CanPL side.

Of course, there is another side to this. It’s less than ideal that Valour lost. Already struggling to grab the attention of sports fans in Winnipeg, this can’t help. Hopefully, the average fan was busy reading reports on the Jets second power-play unit to notice.

This space is supported through paid subscriptions, or by donations to Patreon.