Arrival of World Cup in Toronto, Vancouver means more chances to pick up side gigs

One of four giant LCD screens located around the pitch at BMO Field is shown as part of the stadium’s upgrades ahead of hosting six FIFA World Cup 2026 matches in Toronto on March 24, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Eduardo Lima

Canadian soccer fanatics have a chance to experience one of the sport’s premier events in person this year as the FIFA World Cup comes to North America. For some people, the tournament also means an opportunity to earn some extra cash.

The tournament is set to run from mid-June to mid-July and will feature matches in Toronto and Vancouver.

Running an event of this size requires manpower, and that means temporary job opportunities are popping up ranging from security to venue co-ordinators to food and beverage services and beyond. Not to mention many small businesses will be beefing up staffing levels to accommodate the influx of soccer fans.

“If (someone) is not able to afford a ticket to attend, at least they can go work and still be a part of it,” said Danny Murrell, founder and CEO of Harrison Staffing.

Harrison Staffing will be working the Canada Soccer House fan destination at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre during the World Cup. The company is primarily filling bartender roles, along with some bussers.

Murrell said Harrison Staffing started taking applications in April to fill between 100 and 150 roles for the event, adding there was a “steady influx” of applicants for FIFA-related opportunities.

“That did up the ante of who’s applying. The demographic is of course young, predominantly more males. They’re excited to be part of it,” Murrell said.

“It’s definitely helping that we have this opportunity, this event here in Toronto to motivate people to try to pick up some more dollars over this busy time of the year.”

World Cup organizers have touted the potential economic benefits of the event; FIFA estimated up to $940 million in economic output for the Greater Toronto Area, while the B.C. government last year said the event would generate more than a billion dollars in tourism in the five years after the games.

Murrell said there’s a significant group of applicants looking to the event for a secondary job.

“I would say we’ve got about, out of the whole set of applicants ... 30 to 40 per cent are secondary jobs. The other 50 per cent tend to be ‘I can do this full-time.’ And that’s more, like, students,” he said.

Murrell said it is now more difficult for many people to enjoy the quality of life they desire in Canada on a sole income, even for those in high-level positions.

Online survey results from Employment Hero taken in April this year among 1,500 people showed that 14 per cent of respondents indicated they would likely consider taking on temporary or gig work related to major events like the World Cup. Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

Among employed Canadians who are open to FIFA-related gig work, the survey found that two-thirds indicated they would consider taking time off their primary job to participate. Twenty-eight per cent said they were willing to take unpaid leave from their regular job, and 39 per cent were willing to use paid vacation.

The increased interest in gig work is not only because of higher living costs, but also the lower barrier to entry with the proliferation of digital platforms, said Karyn Xiong, people business partner at Employment Hero Canada.

“It’s become more accessible. Right now you have platforms like Upwork, DoorDash, Uber that make it really convenient for someone to make additional income on the side,” Xiong said.

Beyond the World Cup, summer in Canada brings other opportunities for gig work at large events and festivals such as the Calgary Stampede, Osheaga music festival in Montreal or Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.

Stacy Yanchuk Oleksy, CEO of Money Mentors, said she is seeing people seek out side gigs as a way to supplement living expenses.

“There’s two sides to the equation when it comes to a budget. One is of course expenses and the other is income. You can only cut so far into your budget before you have to make some other changes. So adding income can certainly help the household,” she said.

With gig work becoming more available, Xiong said employers may need to look at updating employment contracts with strict no outside work clauses that “don’t fly in today’s reality.”

“I think employers need to be more flexible in terms of how they work with employees to ensure they can kind of balance the two,” she said.

Yanchuk Oleksy said there are also tax implications that need to be considered.

“We need to account for the fact that now our income is going to go up, it is likely not going be taxed the way it needs to be, so we may owe come tax season in 2027 in April,” she said.

“We want to make sure that maybe we’re asking for enough tax to be taken off so we don’t owe and we don’t have a surprise next year.”

Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press