As Toronto welcomes the FIFA World Cup, the world’s attention is fixed on the city. Yet long before the crowds, the stadiums and the global spotlight, one entrepreneur imagined a future few others could see.
Every great city has people who quietly shape its future.
They are rarely the ones standing centre stage when history is made. Instead, they are the visionaries who plant the seeds decades earlier, believing in possibilities long before anyone else can see them.
As Toronto welcomes the FIFA World Cup, millions will celebrate the energy, diversity and international spirit that define Canada’s largest city. Yet behind this historic moment is a story that deserves to be remembered. It belongs to Steve Stavro, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and lifelong believer in Toronto whose influence reached far beyond business and whose passion for soccer helped lay the groundwork for the city’s place on the global sporting stage.
Born in Greece, Stavro immigrated to Toronto with his family as a young boy, during the Great Depression. Like many newcomers of his generation, opportunity was earned through perseverance rather than circumstance. After leaving school to help support his family, he worked alongside his father before eventually opening a modest produce business that would evolve into Knob Hill Farms, one of Canada’s most recognizable grocery chains.
His success came from challenging convention.
At a time when grocery shopping looked very different, Stavro envisioned larger stores, greater selection and lower prices. His warehouse-style approach transformed Canadian retail, proving that innovation often begins by questioning what everyone else accepts as normal.
That same instinct would eventually find its way onto the soccer pitch.
In 1961, when professional soccer occupied only a small corner of Canada’s sporting landscape, Stavro partnered with legendary sports journalist George Gross to establish Toronto City Football Club as part of the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League. Together, they recruited some of England’s most celebrated players, including Sir Stanley Matthews, Danny Blanchflower and Johnny Haynes, bringing world-class football to Toronto at a time when few believed such a vision was possible.
For many immigrant families, soccer represented more than sport. It was culture, identity and a connection to home. Stavro recognized that long before multiculturalism became one of Toronto’s defining characteristics. He understood that investing in the world’s game was in many ways an investment in the city itself.
Today, that belief feels remarkably ahead of its time.
Long before Toronto FC, before packed stadiums as well as decades before FIFA selected Toronto as one of its host cities, Stavro imagined Toronto as a place that belonged in the global conversation surrounding football. The World Cup now unfolding across the city is, in many respects, the realization of a dream that visionaries like Stavro helped set in motion generations ago.
His influence, however, has extended well beyond soccer.
Stavro became one of the driving forces behind Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, helping shape the future of professional sports in Toronto while supporting hospitals, educational initiatives, community organizations and newcomer programs through decades of philanthropy. His leadership reflected a simple philosophy: Success carries its greatest value when it creates opportunity for others.
That legacy continues today through the Steve & Sally Stavro Family Foundation, which encourages Canadians to remember not only the excitement of the FIFA World Cup but also to remember one person whose belief in the sport helped make moments like this imaginable.
Cities often celebrate their milestones. They celebrate championships, championships won, arenas built, and tournaments hosted.
What they celebrate less often are the people whose imagination made those milestones possible in the first place.
This summer, as Toronto welcomes the world, Steve Stavro’s story serves as a reminder that the most enduring legacies are rarely built overnight. They are built through quiet conviction, bold ideas and an unwavering belief in a city’s future.
Sometimes the greatest victory is seeing a dream fulfilled long after it was first imagined.
