Toronto may lose its chance to play host to games of the 2007 under-21 world soccer championship if the City of Toronto and the federal government can't solve their dispute over the location of a soccer-specific stadium.
The city supports a plan to build the facility at Exhibition Place.
Immigration Minister Joe Volpe, the federal political minister for Ontario and MP for the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, backs a bid to have the stadium built on federal land at Downsview Park in Toronto's north end.
Toronto Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, chairman of the Exhibition Place board of directors, says he and Mayor David Miller have sent letters to Volpe urging him to support the Exhibition Place bid, but they have had no response.
"The golden chance to launch the sport [of soccer]could be lost for another generation and that would be a pity," Pantalone said. "Time is crucial. We cannot wait any longer. We all seem to be standing still while we should be moving forward with an implementation plan. The soccer ball is at Volpe's feet now and he has to decide what play he is going to make."
Miller said: "The federal government will need to move quickly if we are going to make it work. We need shovels in the ground this fall."
Volpe was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Pantalone says both stadium proposals are part of a bigger plan for a sports and entertainment complex similar to the recently opened Carson Centre in suburban Los Angeles. The Carson Centre includes separate facilities for tennis, soccer and track and field.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors, is in negotiations to bring a Major League Soccer expansion franchise to Canada for 2007 and MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum supports the Exhibition Place bid.
Bruce Thomas, chairman of the Toronto site committee for the under-21 championship, warns that the disagreement may see Toronto relegated to the sidelines for a tournament that is watched by a huge global television audience.
"The problem is there is too much infighting going on over the two proposed sites," Thomas said. "At the moment it looks like we are going to have the embarrassment of watching Rome burn while Nero fiddles."
Thomas is frustrated with the stadium negotiations and has launched an on-line petition urging federal and city politicians to reach an agreement ( http://www.build-our-stadium.com).
The Canadian Soccer Association was to make an announcement on a Toronto stadium site at the end of July, but it never came. CSA chief operating officer Kevan Pipe told The Globe and Mail yesterday that a decision may be as long as four weeks away.
Toronto, Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa and Montreal were chosen as host cities for the 2007 tournament. Insiders have warned that the CSA will pull the plug on Toronto if shovels aren't in the ground by Nov. 1. The CSA has said it is considering bids from Hamilton and London, Ont., to replace Toronto.
The current proposals mark the fourth attempt by the CSA to build a stadium in Toronto. The most recent setback came on May 12 when plans for a $70-million facility on the campus of York University fell through.
Since then, the Ontario Soccer Association, whose headquarters is in Vaughan, and the Town of Oakville have submitted bids to get their hands on more than $27-million in federal money and $8-million in provincial funding earmarked for a stadium. But the disagreement over the two latest Toronto proposals appears to be derailing the process.
"There is controversy, it is bitter and deeply felt," Thomas said. "It's getting to the point where it [the dispute]has become the issue and I don't want it to be. We need to have a stadium here and people have to patch up their differences and move forward."