The legacy of hosting the Women's World Cup in Edmonton

Kevin Kobi describes the atmosphere as electric.

His stadium bowl was brimming with 53,058 fans, awash in red and white for the first game of the tournament back on June 6th.

Now as the international sporting event heads into the quarterfinalsand the last week of play, the supervisor of major events and operations at Commonwealth Stadium is taking stock.

Kobi firstrattles off the obvious civic pride, positive international press, young players seeing their starsin person.

Then there's the busylocal bars and restaurants and booked-up hotels, but Kobi says to get a true tally of the legacy of the2015FIFAWomen's World Cup you have to look down.

"The budget for the replacement of the turf at Commonwealth stadium was $800,000, an amountsplit 50/50 with the national organization committee and the City of Edmonton."

Thatturf neededto be replaced in the next threeyears anyway, Kobi said.

"Once the tournamentis over we have a piece of equipment that removes the paint that's on the field now and then we'll paint football lines on the field, so we'llbe ready to roll for the first Edmonton Eskimo home game on July 9th."

Soccer complex gets new turf

But Commonwealth isn't the only surface gleaming withgreen.

Trisa Zimmerman looks across the open space of the Edmonton Soccer Complex, at 149th Avenue and 142nd Street.

The FIFA Edmonton venue general manager points to field #12 with itsnew artificial turf,a training site for theWomen's World Cup, paid for by FIFA.

After the tournament,young Edmonton players willbe able to scrimmage on the same turf astheir idols once did, in the footsteps of the likes of Christine SinclairandKarina LeBlanc.

"For us, in Edmonton, I think we can be really proud of the legacy left in the community," Zimmerman said.

She saidEdmonton set the tone fornationalpride andprovided momentum in the opening game,momentummany hopewill continue into the final week of of the tournament with just eightteams remaining.

Today the Canadian squad faces off against England in Vancouver, bothvying for a semifinal spot.

In Edmonton thousands are expected to fill Commonwealth Stadium at 2 p.m. MT for the matchbetween Australia and Japan.

"With any luck, and I certainly don't want to jinx things, we'll see Canada back here on Canada Day," says Kobi.

For more on soccer, watch this week's edition of Our Edmonton.

CBC TV's weekly magazine show runs Saturday at 10a.m., Sunday at 11a.m. and Monday at 1 p.m.