Dr. Kristen Morrison is studying the way community soccer organizations are leveraging World Cup buzz (PETER MARVAL/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
Soccer fans are gearing up to watch Canada take on the best teams from around the globe in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Some supporters will even have the chance to support their team in person in Toronto and Vancouver, as Canada hosts the tournament for the first time alongside Mexico and the United States.
Among those cheering on Team Canada will be community soccer organizations, who plan to leverage the World Cup excitement to support the goals of their clubs.
“It is a really timely moment to examine how community soccer clubs are thinking about the World Cup,” says Dr. Kristen Morrison, a professor in the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Human Kinetics.
Morrison — alongside University of Toronto researcher Dr. Michael Shier and Western University researcher Dr. Georgia Teare — is working on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded study exploring how community soccer organizations are engaging with the World Cup.
“The literature calls this event leveraging,” explains Morrison. “It’s a strategic process of mobilizing the opportunities that an event generates to create meaningful outcomes for host communities and local organizations.”
While Morrison explains that community sports organizations are rarely involved with the planning of events on the world stage themselves, they do often work at the grassroots level, bolstering sport participation and interest in their communities.
For their study, Morrison and her co-investigators are interviewing community soccer club leaders to find out what their intentions and goals are for World Cup engagement, with plans to follow up after the event to see how those goals materialized.
While many may think of local soccer clubs as being focused on children, Morrison explains there is growing interest in community soccer programming for adults as well as modified activities such as walking soccer for older adults.
Regardless of the demographic, many community clubs are completely volunteer run and reliant on limited resources, Morrison explains, meaning that despite best intentions to leverage World Cup buzz, many extra plans and activities related to the event may not be feasible.
The researchers are in part interested in finding out what resource needs these clubs may have in order to best engage with events like the World Cup so that clubs can be ready for future similar events.
While more insight will emerge after the final has been played, Morrison says that preliminary interviews with club leadership have shown that community soccer organizations are being proactive in terms of their World Cup planning.
“Several have noted they’ve thought about it for over a year,” she says. “It speaks to a growing intentional engagement in this area, and that’s needed.”
In terms of goals off the pitch, Morrison notes that recruitment is only part of the picture.
“Sometimes, the club leaders saw the World Cup as an extension of their existing developmental priorities, like increasing membership at the youth or adult level,” she explains, “or they might want to encourage recreational players to move into competitive pathways.”
Still, some clubs are already pushing capacity due to space and facility constraints, meaning they’re more focused on retaining players in the sport or strengthening community connections through watch parties and fan festivals.
“Some clubs are looking to use soccer as a vehicle to strengthen connections, create shared experiences and create collective identification that might extend beyond the club itself into the community,” Morrison says.
Watch parties and festivals also help make that community celebration more accessible, given the high cost of travel and tickets to World Cup games.
“Club leaders are trying to think creatively about ways to bring the World Cup experience to their club, to their community, instead of just directing members to go see the game,” says Morrison.
This can also lead to some revenue generation for clubs who may then be able to use that money to continue to sustain their programming.
“I have heard club leaders say that this is the moment,” Morrison says.
“It’s a once in a lifetime experience, so they are really latching onto it.”
As for Morrison herself, while she won’t be in the stands, she says she’ll definitely be watching the World Cup.
“We have Canada playing in Canada. What an amazing opportunity that is for us,” she says.
“I’m very excited, and I’ll certainly be cheering alongside other club leaders and participants.”