The City of Toronto appears to be trying a unique strategy to recoup some of the costs associated with hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

At a city hall meeting on Tuesday, councillors and mayor Olivia Chow discussed a plan to buy $10.7 million Canadian worth of tickets for next year's World Cup matches taking place at BMO Field, most of which are in luxury boxes and special hospitality packages.

Though the City of Toronto owns the venue, FIFA controls the tickets for all matches. However, they've offered host cities the chance to purchase a select block of tickets before the general public to then resell them at higher costs.

A city council motion lists that the purchase will be "fully funded by the Major Special Event Reserve Fund… with funds to be replenished to the reserve fund following the sale of hospitality packages."

In other words, it'll help the city recoup some of the $380 million they're spending to be a co-host, including $123 million towards BMO Field's $146 million renovation.

The most significant temporary change includes a previously announced 10,000 temporary seats added on the north grandstand and 7,000 on the south grandstand, bringing the capacity to 45,000 for the duration of the tournament.

Councillor Jon Burnside was one of several councillors opposed to the plan, saying the city was acting "like StubHub," the popular secondary ticket marketplace.

"There are certain things governments shouldn't be involved in, and scalping tickets — which is really what this is — is one of those questionable activities," said Burnside, per CBC's Michael Smee.

The plan goes to council next week for final approval, where there will be a vote to see if it will be going ahead.

Toronto will host six games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while Vancouver is the lone other Canadian host city and is hosting seven games. The remainder of the games will be played throughout the United States and Mexico, with the final to be played at MetLife Stadium.

Canada is slated to play at BMO Field on June 12, 2026, in its opening game of the tournament, though the rest of the schedule is still up in the air as qualifying for next year's tournament is happening around the world over the next 12 months.