Hurrah for Toronto!

If you believe Gerry Dobson, and you should, Canada’s men’s national team will play its first home World Cup qualifying match of this cycle at Toronto’s BMO Field Tuesday, June 16 against Dominica.

Some pundits, steeped in cynicism, will say this is another work of uncreative Torontocentricism by the Canadian Soccer Association. That Toronto gets far more games than is their due and giving them yet another home World Cup qualifying match, their seventh on the trot, is one more reason why the Canadian men’s national team’s grip will remain so weak outside southern Ontario.

In fact, despite the history, hosting this game in Toronto is brilliant.

First, if we look at the present rather than the past, this scheduling is perfectly fair. All Canada will enjoy a plethora of marquee international soccer games this summer. The Women’s World Cup final is being held in Vancouver, Canada will play two games in Edmonton and one in Montreal, Winnipeg is sold out for the Americans, even little Moncton will see more first-rate internationals in June than in the rest of the decade. The biggest Canadian city being left out of this nationwide party? Toronto, whose councilors preferred to focus their resources on the Pan-American Games. (And even the soccer for that is being played in Hamilton.)

Sure, Toronto will host Canada’s first ever home Gold Cup match in July. But a Gold Cup group stage game doesn’t register on the same level as a World Cup. Every two years some of Canada’s marquee players give the Gold Cup a miss; it just isn’t a priority. I suspect, however, that few women will skip the World Cup to concentrate on their club careers. The Gold Cup and the Women’s World Cup, in terms of media exposure, in terms of the expected attendance, and in terms of international profile, do not belong on the same level.

Putting the World Cup qualifier in Toronto gives Canada’s largest city a chance so many other cities will have in 2015: to cheer on their country in a critical, possibly do-or-die, game. (And one Canada is likely to win.) Who could begrudge Toronto that?

Second, many of Canada’s other venues would be unavailable for the men anyway. Commonwealth Stadium, BC Place, the Big O, Winnipeg, Ottawa, even Stade Moncton, all monopolized by the simultaneous Women’s World Cup. Regina is still building their new stadium. Even secondary venues in these cities, such as Stade Saputo and Clarke Stadium, are FIFA-reserved “training grounds” and barred to Benito Floro’s interlopers. That leaves few options. Calgary, I suppose. And Cowtown is long overdue for a visit.

But here we see the clever final bonus for playing this game in this city on this date. The men, according to Dobson, play on Tuesday, June 16. The women have their final WWC group stage match on Monday, June 15, in Montreal. An expensive flight to Calgary, but a cheap bus ride to Toronto.

Canada’s most passionate traveling supporters will be concentrated in one small part of the country. Dinner in Montreal, breakfast in Toronto, two of Canada’s biggest games a six-hour drive from each other. It could not be better. No major soccer stadium is both available and nearer to Montreal than BMO Field. We should be guaranteed two nights of first-rate, pro-Canadian atmosphere in the games where it’s most needed.

So three cheers for the CSA, and three cheers for Toronto. I’m looking forward to it already.