[Source: City of Edmonton] The City of Edmonton has announced a comprehensive and growing level of public support for their candidature to be a host city of the FIFA World Cup 2026™, taking place in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Collated feedback from surveys conducted in 2018 and 2020 show an increased level of public support for the hosting. Edmonton is one of three Canadian cities included in the United bid, alongside Montreal and Toronto, with the city’s Commonwealth Stadium having a capacity of 56,400 and located just minutes from the city centre.

Among the results, the surveys showed a 77% support among Edmonton residents for the hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2026™, an increase of 6% from 2018, with prime reasons for support being the economic boost (40%), exposure for the city (32%), and benefits for tourism (21%). More than 1,200 residents were randomly recruited for the survey, while an additional open-link survey was completed by more than 3,700 residents, showing an increased level of 93% favourability for the hosting (up from 89% in 2018).

The release of the survey data has provided an extra boost to the city’s aspirations to be confirmed as a host city for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ and serves as a positive reinforcement of its commitment to driving the recovery of sporting events following the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, Edmonton has played a leading role in North America in continuing to provide a platform for sports events, hosting events such as the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and the IIHF Junior World Championships, and receiving widespread praise for their handling of such occasions in a secure and safe environment.

On the surveys, Janelle Janis, Director of Edmonton Events said, “It is great to see public support for our hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ continue to grow. In Edmonton, we have had fantastic experiences of hosting FIFA events, including the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015, the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2014, the FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup in 2007, and the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship in 2002, and we are incredibly excited for this next step. As these surveys help to show, we will be ready to welcome the world in 2026. With Edmonton, FIFA can truly expect the best.”

With FIFA’s final confirmation of host cities expected to be later this year, today Edmonton has launched their website for its 2026 candidature, to provide information about the city’s vision for hosting the World Cup, and to keep followers up to date with news. The website is available to view here.

Janelle Janis is speaking at Host City Americas online on 29-30 June - register here

Major events can have an incredibly positive impact on their host cities and citizens. If we are to avoid the lack of public support that can lead to the likes of Calgary and Graz withdrawing their bids for the 2026 Winter Olympics, we must ensure that major events achieve an international reputation for being cost effective, inclusive and having long-term sustainable benefits. We need to work together to engage with all stakeholders, including the general public, so that everyone feels involved.

In my 37 years with CSM Live (in its different guises) I’ve had the pleasure to work with many great organisations and hosts that understand the benefit of branding not only event spaces and fan zones, but entire cities and countries, and the importance of wide public engagement.

London 2012 is a fantastic example of this attitude. They worked to get the public onside right from the start, launching the 2004 / 2005 bid in tandem with a major PR campaign which included events and a city dressing campaign around the whole of the UK. This commitment to bringing the excitement of the Games into the public domain only increased during the actual games, with the aim to ‘Inspire a Generation’. CSM Live took point on both the venue and the city dressing, creating the space branding guidelines, and producing and installing the branding.

To ensure uniform, easily-accessible branding across the country, we created an online catalogue from which local authorities and institutions could order Games Look and Feel elements based on a pre-designed Kit of Parts. In the end, we dressed 33 London Boroughs, 11 Host Cities, 43 Live Sites and communities throughout the UK, with everything from banners and bunting to giant shot putts falling from the sky and over-sized inflatable mascots rising from the ground; we lit up buildings in brand colours; installed branded planting, pavements, transport and transport hubs; and created soundscapes across bridges and light projections in the sky.

Obviously, this approach can be very expensive, but one solution is to find a sponsor or partner with similar goals. The Tour de France Grand Depart found that in Yorkshire Building Society, who were extremely proud to be able to sponsor this iconic event as it travelled through their heartland during their 150^th anniversary celebrations. We worked closely with the event organisers, local councils and Yorkshire Building Society to create activations and branding concepts that helped local people celebrate their proud Yorkshire heritage.

For a perfect example of how a unified and integrated major events policy can positively impact a whole country, just look to the country that’s hosting Host City. I have had the pleasure of working in Scotland many times including both the Ryder Cup and the Commonwealth Games during their amazing 2014 year - the “Big G” logo, which we created for the Games is now a permanent selfie inspiring fixture, and I expect big things as they continue the ‘Scotland the Perfect Stage’ strategy onto 2025.

Hear Andrew Hodson’s “lightning talk” at Host City 2019, the largest meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events in Glasgow on 26-27 November