BMO Field in Toronto will be renamed for the FIFA 2026 World Cup
BMO Field in Toronto will host six matches in the hotly anticipated 2026 FIFA World Cup, though fans won’t hear the stadium’s official corporate-sponsored name uttered even once during the most-watched sporting tournament in the world.
Toronto will host five group-stage matches in the tournament, as well as an additional match in the tournament’s round of 32 at Exhibition Place.
All eyes will be on Toronto during these matches, but the brand’s corporate sponsor — banking titan BMO — will receive no fanfare during the 2026 World Cup, as the stadium will temporarily change its name in accordance with FIFA’s strict intellectual property and corporate branding regulations.
FIFA’s list of venues for the upcoming tournament currently refers to the stadium simply by its geographical location, called Toronto Stadium on the tournament website.
The temporary loss of branding will be far from the biggest change coming to BMO Field for the 2026 World Cup. The stadium will be expanded from its current capacity of just under 31,000 with the addition of temporary seating that will bring the facility up to FIFA’s 45,000-seat standards.
The upcoming World Cup will not be the first instance of the stadium being rebranded for an international sporting event, either.
For the U-20 World Cup hosted during the first year of the stadium’s operation in 2007, BMO Field was temporarily rechristened as the National Soccer Stadium before reverting to its corporate sponsor name following the event’s conclusion.
The venue was once again renamed the National Soccer Stadium in 2014, when it hosted the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Most recently, BMO Field temporarily took on the name Exhibition Stadium — a throwback for Toronto sports fans of a certain vintage — during the 2015 Pan Am Games, once again switching back immediately after the games wrapped.
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