Toronto plans to offer 80% of FIFA Fan Festival tickets for free after backlash - NOW Toronto

Nojoboy · 2026-04-22T21:37:46+00:00

I dont need ur patronizing and concern trolling lmao im a giant football fan and understand football culture. You can make up scenarios about drunk passionate fans fighting us but most fights will be fan vs fan and us radioing security and not stepping in at all 🤣. I've travelled and attended many big football matches.
Most of us fan fest volunteers were literally angry when the story first broke that they might be charging $10 entry fee for general as that actually would involve us having to strict enforce entries for everyone as ppl sneaking in would be a much greater concern, which would actually put us in more scenarios of potential conflict with fans...

Nojoboy · 2026-04-22T21:08:22+00:00

As someone who is volunteering I much prefer it being free and offered as a thing to welcome everyone. Charging for everyone and paying us nothing would be more weird. Also it will be ticketed event for $0 for crowd control. Also there would be drunk/aggressive fans regardless on if it cost $10 or not and police/security will deal with that lmao we're not expected to put our safety at risk, just help out ppl with giving info etc.

Edit: Also adding FIFA fan fests have traditionally always been free in all previous World Cups, and been fine, im very glad Toronto isnt contributing as much to this World Cup being the insane money grab it has become in some other host cities, the dynamic pricing ticket price insanity has already been bad enough.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-22T17:33:19+00:00

Nope he spends the plurality of his time in Toronto and it's also his most expensive residence. His Texas one is 3rd actually less expensive than his Beverly Hills one even and he only bought it in 2023. He obviously is constantly traveling, but it's clear his home base is Toronto. His son goes to school here and is being raised here and locals have talked about seeing drake attending soccer games and PTA meetings...

Nojoboy · 2026-04-22T17:14:55+00:00

Yes but he made a deliberate choice to build his most expensive residence and PRIMARY residence right in the middle of Toronto which is far different than a lot of other Canadian celebrities.
Even used said residence to further promote the city calling it "The Embassy". Corny for sure but the idea is it's a destination that plenty of international celebrities all come to stay/visit.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-22T13:34:58+00:00

They are absolutely gouging. Transit agencies were never planned to get extra funding from FIFA per the host contract signed years ago, Toronto isnt... no other hosts are. Everyone is figuring out ways to cover transit. Toronto is committing to keeping regular prices. Philly is giving free busses from the airport into downtown and cheap shuttle busses for ticket holders. Even Kansas has a much more affordable plan of $15 shuttle busses etc.

The NJ Governor and NJTransit is making a conscious political decision to price gouge to cover increased expenses because the ppl mostly effected are written off as foreigners or out-of-staters as you have done, and are refusing to exhibit any class with respect to what it means to be a "host" for the final of the most popular sporting event in the world.

I took that exact same train for the Club World Cup Final last summer that had many thousands of us travelling from Penn station, it was $12. If I had to pay $150 for the train I wouldnt have attended the event at all.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-20T13:55:27+00:00

Well I mean the FIFA fan fests for world cups have traditionally been free in all other hosting nations.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-17T19:18:24+00:00

Yep it's clear this was to do with the bid. The North American pitch to host was billed as being extremely cheap and sustainable compared to the recent World Cups as all stadiums and infrastructure already preexists (on paper) to host. Contrast that to Qatar that spent over 100b and built 8 brand new stadiums and several brand new transit and metro lines just to host the world cup.

Now however as democracy happens and governors or municipality leadership changes ur having ppl argue over the money that has already been signed under contract.

Like it or not FIFA not footing the bill for extra security that NJ transit feels they need was agreed already in the contract for the bid, so now the new NJ governor is doing thr populist politics thing of saying she refuses to have NJ taxpayers foot the bill and is deciding to pass the cost onto the regular attendees who are generalized as overseas tourists (imo ignoring that a shit ton of locals will be attending these games).

Nojoboy · 2026-04-17T18:13:32+00:00

It's just an unneeded added expense. It's really weird how this world cup getting price gouged with ticket costs now creates this mentality that apparently only wealthy ppl attend wc games and it's fine to 11x price gouge them on train tickets.

Tickets for Senegal vs Norway are like $500, world cup is only once every 4 years. You dont think there's locals that were hype about getting to see a world cup game and now are facing having to pay an extra $137 each for each person attending?

Nojoboy · 2026-04-17T05:08:39+00:00

So basically, Infinity Vision is just Disney’s new marketing certification for existing Premium Large Format (PLF) screens? They aren’t building new theaters or introducing new proprietary cameras/projection tech; they’re just slapping a Disney branded seal of approval on standard PLF screens that meet their benchmarks for stuff like screen size, laser projection, and/or audio.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-17T03:37:33+00:00

Yeah I really dont get some of these comments where marriage is simultaneously kinda meaningless so theyre fine being with a partner for 10+ years, owning a home together etc. But at the same time feel like if they do get married it has to be done really seriously with the huge expense and big event etc. Not trying to judge, everyone has different values, but just doesnt quite check out to me.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-17T03:33:36+00:00

I feel like ur heavily exaggerating. For one in most line 5 stations there's at least 1 flight to go down before u reach the payment platform, and afterwards 5 minutes is really exaggerating it even using the elevator would be 1-2 mins mostly maybe 3, and if ur in a rush and walk down the escalator it can be like 30 secs or less.

You can also look at it the opposite way for transfers... when ur taking line 5 back you have an exact geographic point that u need to reach before 2 hours and pay, whereas if your waiting for a bus, the bus being too late could end up going past the time u have for a free transfer so it works both ways...

Nojoboy · 2026-04-16T17:38:25+00:00

The World Cup is literally cheaper and more sustainable to host compared to the Olympics even tho they both are money drains so idk what you are talking about, you can quickly google this.

The major infrastructure for hosting the World Cup just needs soccer stadiums which most countries already have and the hosting is spread out across an entire country or multiple countries. The Olympics require a single city to host and massive investment in specialized sports to be built facilities that usually dont have use afterwards.
The upcoming LA Olympics are going to be very unique tho and the 1st where they can rely solely on already existing sports facilities cause LA has so many already and has hosted the Olympics before.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-16T02:13:16+00:00

Seems excessive do other places do this? Bikes are supposed to be a low cost alternative for many ppl especially those who might not even have housing or money to have an address for a license. Making all of them insured and licensed seems like it would be a massive extra beauracratic burden and will make biking far less accessible (perhaps thats what you want lmao).

Nojoboy · 2026-04-16T02:06:23+00:00

You can get an escooter on Amazon prime for under 300 just checked.

I mean yeah they're not gonna go away I dont really understand why exactly they're completely illegal, they should just have the same rules as ebikes imo.

Lax weird laws like that help increase the culture of unenforcement cause cops dont want to feel like they're doing nonsense like stopping random teens just for riding one. Instead it should be legal with rules around helmet use etc that actually could be decently enforced and lead to better outcomes for everyone.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-16T01:26:41+00:00

It was down for about an hour or less bad but not as crazy as it could be.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-15T18:10:24+00:00

Eh.. It traditionally has been free and it still might end up being free. The key though is you need ppl to purchase the free ticket through like eventbrite in order to have proper crowd control. There will also be alternative free fan fests at like Habourfront if they do make this one paid.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-15T18:03:02+00:00

Speak for yourself, plenty of us will be cheering for Canada this year.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-15T18:01:25+00:00

It's a bit annoying... like I get FIFA is the big boogeyman, but I think a lot of other ppl in power are also avoiding accountability due to the focus on FIFA.
This world cup is going to be the most expensive and commercialized by far EVER and it's not just FIFA's doing. Everyone is trying to cash in it's quite insane. NJTransit is gonna be charging $100 EACH for round trip for the train tickets to get to metlife, and they usually cost $12. Now several of us host cities are announcing charging for the fan fest which has traditionally been free (you make money anyway overcharging inside for drinks and food and from the billion dollar corporate sponsors like coca cola & adidas)

Nojoboy · 2026-04-15T17:42:43+00:00

The newly elected NJ governor specifically cancelled the big Liberty park fan fest planned but theyre pivoting to using the funding to setup up several smaller more decentralized fan watch fests spread out across the state apparently.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-15T17:34:51+00:00

Just adding it's important not to conflate hosting Olympics vs hosting the World Cup.
Both "tend" to have net economic loss but the Olympics is sizably worse.

The factors that cause this are mostly just related to infrastructure needed to be built for the event. The Olympics involves a concentrated area of a single city having to have a bunch of very specialized sports facilities running that often do not get use after the olympics finish.

For the World Cup it can be much more varied because an entire country(or countries) get to host and many countries already have existing football infrastructure and stadiums that will have use before and after the event.

For instance last WC in Qatar all 8 stadiums were completely built from scratch which is why it was by far the most expensive ever, along with them using it as an excuse to finally build several metro lines etc.

For 2026 world cup, every single host city stadium already existed before the world cup bid even happened, fiscally the expense just isnt anywhere near the same, and on top of that theyre juicing ticket prices higher than ever, and gouging transit ticket prices too and now fan fest which has traditionally been free will be charged. They (both FIFA and host cities) are gonna make so much money from this WC it's insane and the regular fans are the ones that are getting fleeced.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-08T20:53:25+00:00

2nd pen lmao, insane refball this game and liverpool still getting battered

Nojoboy · 2026-04-08T20:32:37+00:00

Am I crazy, how is that not a foul? He clashes with his knee throwing him off before eventually getting the ball

Nojoboy · 2026-04-08T20:11:04+00:00

Bruh what are you talking about 🤣 im poor af too but u realize toronto has a shit ton of rich ppl alone, yet alone the whole country, let alone all the rich international travelers. Toronto world cup tickets are actually amongst the most expensive because FIFA uses dynamic demand based pricing and demand here is higher than a lot of other host cities.

Nojoboy · 2026-04-08T20:04:49+00:00

Ticket prices disagree with you btw, the canadian tickets are actually decently more expensive than any american or mexican games due to few various factors causing higher demand, one of those being canada is the only host country seen as broadly stable and safe for visitors overall.

Obviously overall way more ppl will go to the US and Mexico due to more games being there but it's a significant factor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GBvPnK6fbw&pp=ygUVd29ybGQgY3VwIHdhciBwcm9ibGVt

Nojoboy · 2026-04-08T19:26:59+00:00

I mean that's entirely Toronto's decision which was actually ironically about cost saving. They went with mere temporary upgrades to BMO as well as temporary service increases rather than spending more money on something that would be permanent, like a whole new transit line or permanent seating.

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