"It's ready for the World Cup." That's the verdict from Don Hardman, executive director of stadium and venue management for FIFA26 Canada, after a media tour of the revamped Toronto Stadium on Thursday. BMO Field has been stripped down and rebuilt into something that actually looks like a World Cup venue — and with Canada's June 12 opener just days away, the finishing work is almost done.
Hardman's house-moving analogy landed well. "There's still some final touches before you can move the furniture in," he said, "but we're really close." The goalposts and field markings hadn't gone down yet during the tour, and grounds crew were still walking mowers across the pitch — but the bones of the venue are there.
A stadium that punches above its size
Temporary grandstands, four oversized video screens, and colourful banners throughout the venue have given the lakefront ground a bigger-stadium atmosphere than its footprint would normally allow. Capacity for each of the six tournament matches will sit around 42,000 — not a Wembley-sized crowd, but enough to generate real noise for a team playing on home soil in its first-ever World Cup as host.
"It's a little bit of a smaller stadium but it does have the footprint," Hardman acknowledged. "We have the real estate to get a little bit bigger, which we've been able to do and really create that World Cup environment."
The setup got its first stress test on May 9 when Toronto FC hosted Inter Miami — and Lionel Messi — in an MLS fixture that drew a full house. Organizers used it as a dry run, identifying bottlenecks in entry lanes and fixing capacity flow issues before tournament football arrives. Six matches to fine-tune things further.
What's at stake for Canada
Canada opens against Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 12 before heading west for two group-stage games in Vancouver. The matchup with Bosnia is winnable on paper, and a strong home crowd at a venue that's been designed specifically to amplify atmosphere could matter. Canada have never made it past the group stage at a World Cup — the pressure to perform in front of a home crowd is real, and the sightlines inside Toronto Stadium will make sure nobody misses a moment of it.
Group-stage qualification odds for Canada will hinge heavily on that opener. A result against Bosnia sets the tone for everything that follows.
