‘Phenomenal’: Canada-hosted World Cup boon for Edmonton businesses airing games, selling merchandise

Soccer fans are gearing up for the FIFA World Cup and local businesses are hoping for a boost. CTV News Edmonton's Nahreman Issa reports.

Several Edmonton businesses are expecting to cash in on the world’s biggest sporting event, partly because it’s being hosted in their backyard.

The FIFA World Cup began Thursday with two games in Mexico. Canada, too, is co-hosting the five-week men’s soccer tournament featuring 48 teams from around the globe as is the United States.

The Canadian Men’s National Team plays its first game Friday (1 p.m.) in Toronto against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Edmonton’s bars and restaurants, in particular, are looking to pack in the crowds to boost revenues that took a hit this spring with the early exit from the National Hockey League playoffs by the local team, the Oilers.

The NHL squad had played into late June both last year and the year before, making it deep into the Stanley Cup Finals before bowing out.

But with the World Cup being staged in North America, the general manager of one city sports bar that’s airing every game of the tournament says it should boost their fortunes.

“Having the Oilers’ playoff run cut short is a major blow to the business, but having the World Cup here – especially since the World Cup is in North America, so all the times coincide with the times we’re open and the times everybody’s awake in this country – is phenomenal,” Dan Cooper, who runs The Cabin Pub and Party, told CTV News on Thursday.

“It really helps out for the rest of the summer and for the rest of the year (when it comes to trying) to compare our sales to the last two years, which is tough to do, because when the Oilers go all the way, that’s one of the most amazing things for the city.”

Several venues, bars and restaurants across Edmonton are broadcasting all the games, while others are showing those of certain countries.

At the northside location of Eurosport Soccer, Samara Smith says sales for the retail store’s wares have been “extra crazy” in the lead-up to the start of the tourney, particularly when it comes to the home team.

She said “it all started” last week, when the men’s national team played before 46,000 spectators at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium in a World Cup warm-up international friendly against Uzbekistan.

“That really got people going and motivated,” Smith told CTV News Edmonton.

She said they’ve sold out of Canada’s new black alternate jersey – “which is the most sought-out Canada jersey this year” – and that sales of anything related to the national squad at the 97 Street locale are hot.

“Whether it’s a scarf or a hat, or (if shoppers) just want that T-shirt or that jersey, it’s the greatest it’s ever been for Canada sales in soccer,” Smith said.

Sales of Portuguese, Croatian, Mexican and Colombian merchandise have been healthy, too, Smith said, pegging them as the strongest sellers after Canadian products.

“We’re north side, so our Portugal sales are huge,” she said. “We’ve sold lots of Croatia, that’s another one on the north side.”

Billed as the world’s biggest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup features 48 men’s national teams competing to be crowned global champions and will be played in 16 cities: 11 in the U.S., three in Mexico and two – Toronto and Vancouver – in Canada.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa, Dave Mitchell