Soccer fans across Canada are gathering on Sunday, including in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, to watch the FIFA Men’s World Cup final between Spain and defending champions Argentina, concluding a month of festivities surrounding World Cup matches in Canada.
In Montreal, the Place des Festivals will welcome fans wishing to watch this World Cup final at the same time as the Just for Laughs Festival.
The official FIFA Fan Festivals held in the two Canadian World Cup host cities, Toronto and Vancouver, are expected to draw thousands of people for public viewing parties. Bars and restaurants on Granville Street in Vancouver and in Toronto’s Liberty Village are also preparing to welcome large crowds.
Toronto hosted six matches and Vancouver seven during this first soccer World Cup held in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
The tournament attracted fans from all over the world to these two Canadian cities and transformed public spaces into gathering places around the sport.
“For the occasion, the Place des Festivals will be transformed into a huge ‘fan zone’ where the match will be shown live on giant screens installed on the site,” for free public viewing, the festival organizers said.
The final, expected to draw nearly 2 billion viewers worldwide, concludes the first 48-team Men’s World Cup and Canada’s role as host of the world’s biggest soccer tournament.
As the World Cup draws to a close, the final cost of organizing the tournament will not be known for several months. In May, the independent officer responsible for the Canadian parliamentary budget estimated the total cost of organizing the event at approximately $1.066 billion, including $473 million in federal spending, with projected costs reaching $729 million in British Columbia and $380 million in Toronto.
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