We are going to be straight with you here, because we think you deserve to know what you are walking into if you decide to drive yourself to any of these events.

The City of Toronto has officially confirmed that there will be zero public parking at or near Toronto Stadium on match days. Not limited parking. Not expensive parking. Zero. The city has also announced that on-street parking along major downtown corridors will be eliminated on all six match days, with enforcement in place to move any vehicles that stop or linger illegally. On top of that, the Jameson Avenue ramp to the westbound Gardiner Expressway is being temporarily closed during the tournament, which will push thousands of additional vehicles into the residential streets of Parkdale and Liberty Village.

Traffic modelling from the City of Toronto projects a 10 to 15 per cent increase in vehicle volume on key downtown roads during the tournament, with the highest congestion expected around the July 2 knockout match. And construction along major corridors will be suspended from May 1 to July 31 to try to manage the flow.

Now consider that Toronto traffic on a perfectly normal Tuesday in June is already a personality test. Adding 300,000 World Cup visitors to that equation, on days when parking does not exist and a major expressway ramp is closed, is not a situation you want to navigate from behind a steering wheel.

The city itself is telling you not to drive. Their official recommendation is transit, cycling, or rideshare. The GO Train from Union Station to Exhibition GO Station is one option, taking about 10 minutes, followed by a short walk. But GO trains will be packed on match days, and getting back to Brampton or Orangeville by transit after a 45,000-person crowd empties onto the same streetcar network is its own adventure.