An influx of soccer fans is expected to shake up the routine for downtown Toronto businesses and residents when the FIFA World Cup gets underway next month. Employers, building owners/managers and condominium corporations are urged to think about potential operational disruptions and plan ahead, particularly for the six match days scheduled from June 12 to July 2.

The two key venues for the event are located just to the west of the financial district and the city’s primary transit hub at Union Station, but other affiliated nodes and connecting transportation routes throughout the city are also likely to be busier than usual. Lead coordinators within Toronto Police Services and the City of Toronto shared insights on the extensive planning exercise and resulting management strategies for the global championship during a recent webinar sponsored by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Greater Toronto.

Toronto is one of 16 host cities for the 48-team tournament, along with Vancouver, 10 cities throughout the United States and four cities in Mexico. Toronto festivities will officially kick off on June 11, the day before Team Canada’s first match.

“It’s really an opportunity as well as an event to manage. Toronto will be in the spotlight. There will be a lot of visitors to the city, a lot of eyes on the city, a lot of people moving in and around the city,” observed Andrew Posluns, chief congestion officer and executive director with the City of Toronto’s infrastructure services division. “Proactive planning helps businesses and institutions keep their doors open and productive, their services reliable no matter whether it’s a match day or not, avoiding unnecessary delays and improving commuting experiences.”

The city is promoting a 5R transportation demand management strategy to target that goal, and has produced associated guidance for businesses and institutions. Similar to the electricity demand response concept, contributors to the commuting load are asked to curtail their input during peak congestion times. Potential commuters and those who set agendas for commuters’ presence in the workplace are urged to reduce trips or reschedule them for off-peak times, relocate to alterative sites, remode away from single-occupancy vehicles and reroute around high-traffic areas wherever possible.

Given various road closures that will be in effect for approximately 10 hours on game days, those could all be reflexively logical options for decision-makers depending on their location within the tournament’s vast footprint. A roughly four-kilometre (km) stretch of the major east-west arterial, Lake Shore Boulevard, about 0.5 km of the north-south Strachan Avenue and streets leading into and through the 192-acre Exhibition Place will all be shut down from five hours before kick-off until about three hours after a game ends. As well, street networks in two other nearby districts will be open only to local traffic, and on standby for possible full closure, if it’s deemed necessary, during the same hours.

Soccer fans will be heading to two primary destinations:

• Toronto Stadium, a 45,700-seat venue at Exhibition Place on the Lake Ontario waterfront; and
• the designated Fan Festival zone, a multi-block district located just to the northeast of Exhibition Place in close proximity to the Liberty Village residential/commercial neighbourhood and historic Fort York, which will be in place from June 11 to July 19.

Crowd contingencies

Pedestrian traffic will dominate in these areas and the surrounding vicinity, dubbed the last mile. There will be no on-site parking at either the stadium or official fan zone so walking routes from the nearest point of transit access — including five different Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) streetcar and bus routes and two Metrolinx GO train stations — will carry the crowd flow. Conventionally during World Cup festivities, supporters of the competing national teams gather in a public space in the lead-up hours and then march together toward the game site as the start-time nears.

“Those marches can be tens of thousands of people, and they’re very celebratory,” advised Superintendent Dave Ecklund, the Toronto Police Services’ lead on all aspects of safety and security related to the FIFA World Cup tournament. “We want to make sure that they march safely.”

In preparation, Toronto Police Services has forged connections with representatives of the fan bases of each of the nine teams that will play in the five preliminary matches scheduled from June 12 to 26, and with the eight teams that could potentially play in the Round of 32 match on July 2. That’s just one of the myriad planning tasks the multi-agency integrated safety and security unit (ISSU), under Ecklund’s command, has undertaken since it was struck for the purpose more than three years ago.

“We’ve identified some park locations where we will encourage fan groups to gather and then we will help facilitate the march,” Ecklund said.

Officers on bicycles and foot will escort the marchers and, if necessary, other traffic along the route will be halted while they move past. Upon reaching a staging point near the stadium, fans will be split into ticket-holders and non ticket-holders and each group will be guided separately to the stadium or other zones for those not attending the match.

Curious onlookers are also anticipated at: two practice fields, located in the north and west ends of the city, that have been reserved for World Cup competitors; teams’ hotels; and even along the routes team buses will be travelling. In the latter case, Ecklund cited an example from last fall when the Major League Soccer (MLS) team, Inter Miami, was in town and several dozen fans ran into live lanes of traffic on Lake Shore Blvd. in an effort to see that team’s star player, Lionel Messi. World Cup team buses will have police escorts.

“We expect crowds to gather in and around times when teams leave (their hotels) to go to training, when teams leave to go to their match or when they come back. Football fans are fanatical and they will show up just to try to get a glimpse of their sports heroes,” Ecklund said. “When you see escorts with lights and sirens, it’s because of that reason. We need to get that bus out of there quickly: a) to get traffic moving again; and b) to prevent those public safety issues with people running in live lanes of busy roadways.”

City life interface

Of course, visitors will also be welcome to experience the life of the city and to participate in one or more of the hundreds of events occurring simultaneously with the tournament — either tied to World Cup or as part of a large roster of summertime happenings. Some notable overlaps include Canada Day, the Pride Festival, the Taste of Little Italy, the Ride to Conquer Cancer, the Portugal Day Parade and 13 Toronto Blue Jays’ home games, including three on the same days as World Cup matches.

“With a number of road closures (on match days) we anticipate there would be impacts, not only in the affected areas, but carrying on through the downtown as people adjust their travel routines to take into account these road closures,” Posluns acknowledged. “At other times, we do expect it will be like you would expect normally in a busy active Toronto summer with other events in and around the city.”

Toronto Police Services will have a dedicated presence in all demarcated World Cup sites — Toronto Stadium, the two practice fields, the Fan Festival district and the last mile pedestrian zone — and within the more fluid parameters of traffic management and the broader public realm. A roving team of officers will be assigned to the latter domain, to be dispatched to FIFA-related crowd control and safety issues that might arise around the city.

The City of Toronto will issues passes for businesses and residents in areas where match-day restrictions apply to make it easier for permitted local traffic to gain access, but Ecklund suggests police officers will use their judgement and be flexible for delivery drivers and others who believably have a sanctioned reason to be there. Alternatively, those who misrepresent their purpose are likely destined to encounter new logistical hurdles.

“If they just want to go in to find parking, it’s a self-correcting problem because they won’t have a car when they get back,” Ecklund quipped. “We will have a lot of parking enforcement officers in the area so if you’re illegally parked, you’ll find yourself walking to wherever your car got towed.”

Tactical planning

Host cities must comply with FIFA’s specifications for 18 categories of tactical planning related to safety and security, which each come with up to five performance standards. As well, collaboration with federal agencies is required for issues such as airspace security, intelligence and threat assessment, background checks for credentialling purposes and mitigation of fraudulent ticket sales.

The ISSU brings together more than 60 players — including emergency first responder services, City of Toronto services, transportation providers, health care services, police forces from other jurisdictions and other miscellaneous support services — tasked with advance preparations and real-time incident management once the tournament is underway. Representatives from every participating agency will have a seat in the event’s command centre, creating a direct communication bridge between their own operations and the overarching safety and security framework. Ecklund and his colleague, Inspector Barry O’Neill, will serve as area commander and deputy area commander.

“We are confident that we are in very good shape in terms of what we are responsible to deliver,” Ecklund affirmed.

Drilling down to particular concerns for property managers, he underscored some CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) basics such as lighting and camera systems to discourage prospective mischief-makers from idling and increasing the presence of security personnel. Businesses in the path of fan marches should remove any potential sidewalk obstructions, such as storefront displays and signage, and adjust their staffing, inventory and/or operating hours with the throng of pedestrians in mind. Businesses and residents in areas shouldering the stadium and designated fan zones should also temper any expectations that roads will remain open to local traffic.

“Depending on how the crowds are and how busy it is, we might do a hard closure for awhile if people take over the street because cars and people don’t mix,” Ecklund warned. “We’ll do our best to keep things moving, but we do expect large crowds.”

As part of the advance preparations, Toronto Police Services studied soccer crowd dynamics and policing responses throughout Europe and at the 2022 World Cup in Quatar. However, there are many variables in play.

“It just sort of depends on the teams that are playing here and who really shows up to party,” Ecklund mused.

Meanwhile, the City of Toronto is imploring employers to adjust office hours and/or allow work from home on match days, to schedule deliveries for times with lighter traffic and to “make the most of a big moment”.

“With a bit of planning, it can be an opportunity for businesses to take advantage of. It can be an opportunity for staff to enjoy events together,” Posluns said. “The strategy is for everyone to be aware and manage their transportation demands. By bringing down demand at peak times just a little bit, it keeps everybody moving and it gives everybody a better experience.”