FIFA REPS PAY VISITS TO SPRUCE MEADOWS SITE
Calgary hoping to be chosen as a base camp for a country competing at 2026 World Cup
They came. They saw. And they nodded in approval.
All in all, it was a positive few visits by the FIFA folks to Spruce Meadows, which hopes to secure host status of a participating country's base camp before the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“It isn't a secret that Spruce Meadows has looked at being a FIFA 2026 base camp candidate and has gone through the exercise of understanding the criteria and submitting our menu,” said Ian Allison, the president/coo of Cavalry FC and senior vice-president of Spruce Meadows.
“It was accepted and then we've had a couple of visits now from FIFA to come and see if our story is the same as our visuals and the experience.”
Indeed, it's been the dream of ownership since the 2018 inception of Cavalry — which returns to action in the Canadian Premier League on Saturday against nemesis Forge FC in Hamilton (5 p.m., Onesoccer, Onesoccer.ca) — to bring a World Cup experience of some sort to Calgary.
Attracting a country to come prepare for the 2026 edition of the grand sports event would check that box.
But first Allison and Spruce Meadows have to get a few of their own boxes checked in satisfying the global soccer body's search to house 45 representative squads — not including host sides Canada, Mexico and the United States — in the weeks leading up to the high-profile tournament.
“They loved the pitch, they loved the grass and they love the fact that we can isolate it as a private property and not a public space,” said Allison of feedback from a handful of FIFA dignitaries during two separate summer visits to the world-class show jumping and footie facility on the southeast outskirts of the city.
“There are some things that we would need to work toward. But as we look to make the cut into the final brochure, we're reasonably encouraged about how it went.”
The most notable of possible upgrades needed to satisfy FIFA'S criteria is the inclusion of a subsurface irrigation system under ATCO Field.
“We don't have subsurface irrigation, and that's kind of a requirement,” Allison said. “And we've done that by choice. Because of the horse sports, we've always had perimeter irrigation so there's no sprinkler heads out on the pitch. We find that to be for the safety of the athlete, whether they are equine or homosapien.”
The feeling is the list of upgrades beyond that might not be long, though at last check, FIFA was feeling out the quality of hotels at hand.
“There's always going to be give or take,” Allison said.
“I think that depends how the report comes back and then how FIFA manages it. You've got the Wi-fi infrastructure that they require. You've got the sports science facility, you've got the locker-rooms, you've got the training facilities, you've got the gym, you've got family facilities ...”
And plenty more to offer — with its privacy and grass pitch, the city's reasonable climate during the May-june time frame and high altitude for advanced training and the multitude of air corridors connecting the Calgary International Airport with World Cup host locations across North America.
Of course, the staff of Spruce Meadows boasts decades-long experience of hosting major international events, as well, highlighted by the ability to move athletes — and the operations staff that come with them — in and out of the city and to the facility.
Plus Spruce Meadows has experience in dealing with logistics and an international customer base, including its long-term working relationship with the airport authority and Canadian Border Services.
“It may be swinging for the fences a little bit,” said Allison of becoming a possible base camp host. “But we've been culturalized by Linda, Nancy, Marg and Ron Southern that you have to have something to swing for.”
To that end, Spruce Meadows is now through the submission and acceptance aspects of the process.
And to Allison's knowledge, Spruce Meadows is the only Canadian candidate in the mix for a base camp.
“We're reasonably encouraged that we can move it to the next level,” said Allison.
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