FIFA U-20 World Cup of Soccer Canada 2007 a Huge Success!

Canada may not be a world power in soccer at the moment, but it demonstrated that when it comes to staging world class global events it can compete with any other country in the world. Canada's U-20 Cup broke the attendance record that Mexico held for 24 years. The last figure quoted by official releases from the organizers put attendance at 1,195,239 spectators, making it the largest single-sport event in Canada's history. While figures have not been released, a FIFA press communiqué's headline reads "Global TV audience for FIFA's flagship youth event breaks all records." The tournament was broadcast in 200 countries and territories and according to a report in the Ottawa Citizen it reached an estimated 600 million viewers worldwide.

As for the impact of the tournament on tourism, I have not yet come across any figures from the various cities that hosted the event, but I can tell you that from my observations during games where Mexico, Argentina and Chile played there were many Hispanic visitors from the United States. Abiega Operadora de Viajes, a tour operator from Mexico, sold out all its packages to the Mexico games in Toronto. Furthermore, traffic to Canada en Espanol.com and Toronto en Espanol.com saw a 300% spike in traffic between Jun 30th and July 16th due to interest in this tournament. "With record attendance spread over six cities, the FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007 will easily surpass $166 million in economic impact in this country, not including future effects on tourism of the popular global tournament." Ottawa Citizen, July 23, 2007

The future. While Women's Soccer is not as huge internationally as men's and U-20, there is a strong following in the United States, the #1 team in the world in Women's soccer. Canada is bidding for the 2011 Women's World Cup and, based on the success of the U-20 Men's tourney, it has a good chance at hosting the ladies in 4 years time. Canada's women's team is ranked 9th in the world (it will face Mexico for the bronze medal at the Pan American Games in Brazil this coming thursday).

One final note: Thanks must go to Kevan Pipe, former COO of Soccer Canada, the man who was instrumental in bringing the Men's U-20 World Cup to Canada. Kevan worked tirelessly for over 4 years to make this happen. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, Soccer Canada let him go a few months before the first match was played (Vancouver 2010 could use someone like Kevan). Kevan was also very gracious and helpful with this writer when Canadá en Español was looking for information about the tourney in order to promote it to Hispanics online users around the world. Here's to you Kevan, wherever you are.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

Jaime