Stadium upgrades in Toronto get positive reviews as biggest World Cup ever set to kick off

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Everything about the 2026 World Cup is bigger and different, and the stadium in Toronto is no exception.Upgrades to the home of Toronto FC of the MLS and the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts were a part of $100-million renovation project that includes an additional 17,000 temporary seats. “The upgrades completed, including temporary seating and permanent legacy enhancements, will make attending a match at Toronto Stadium an unparalleled experience,” Sharon Bollenbach, the executive director of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Toronto Secretariat, said in a statement.Toronto Stadium is better known as BMO Field but has been renamed during the World Cup due to sponsorship deals under FIFA naming rules.Early reviews of the renovations, which brought the capacity to the FIFA minimum of 45,000, have been favorable On May 9, Toronto FC opened the temporary stands to fans for a match against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami. The match drew a venue-record crowd of more than 44,000.

“I was definitely apprehensive about the safety of the setup,” said JohnPaul Agius, who sat in the temporary seats with his family for the match. “I had seen pictures of it being built and the immediate comparison with the Rogers Stadium at Downsview” — a local temporary concert venue — “and all the complaints about it, definitely gave me a preconceived notion that they would be unsafe.”