What is the largest single sporting celebration on the planet?

No, it’s not the thing happening in Sochi soon, nor its summer counterpart.

It is FIFA’s World Cup of soccer.

And something that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago, is emerging: that Canada could host the event in 2026.

That might seem like a long way away, but for an event of this magnitude it isn’t.

The World Cup will be held this summer in Brazil, an emerging global economic power.

The next two World Cups locations are decided and work is on for those events: 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar.

Yes, Qatar where it is 40-plus in the shade. A Persian Gulf emirate with nothing but oil and money, threw a lot of that green FIFA’s way to earn the bid. Qatar is building eight — get this — air-conditioned outdoor stadiums.

For a 2026 bid to be successful, a few things have to happen. Organizers and the Canadian Soccer Association have to build stronger corporate relationships, such as the ones that resulted in some of the country’s newest venues: the expanded B.C. Place in Vancouver, Rogers Centre in Toronto, Tim Hortons Stadium in Hamilton, Toronto’s BMO Field expansion, Winnipeg’s new stadium on the University of Manitoba campus.

Canada needs between eight and 12 stadiums with more than 40,000 seats. We have four, with two more that could be augmented to the number. That means other stadiums need a major retrofit or new stadiums must be built.

Canada’s increasingly soccer-friendly society will some day make us good internationally. When the U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup, they started a good domestic league (MLS) as a spinoff of the event so they could be consistently strong internationally. They have done that.

Canada can do that, too. A generation ago, before the Toronto Raptors, we weren’t developing any young basketball stars. Today, we seem rife with them.

So too it could be for soccer.

If we build it, they will come. The world would love to come to Canada in the summer, and the economic spinoff would be huge.

But taxpayers have no appetite for white elephants. They need to be convinced that legacy, built with corporate partners, is worth the effort.