Vancouver hits the gas on FIFA preparations

Vancouver’s host committee for the 2026 FIFA World Cup provided a first look at the nearly completed training venue at Killarney Park on Monday.

One of two official training venues, the project is more than 95 per cent complete, “on budget and ahead of schedule,” Park Board Director of Planning Tiina Mack said at the news conference. 

The city has shifted into high gear as it quickly approaches the six-month mark before Vancouver becomes one of 16 host cities across three countries for the massive tournament. 

Mayor Ken Sim, Vancouver Host Committee Lead Jessie Adcock, and other city officials were in Washington D.C. on Friday for the main FIFA draw to learn which countries would be playing in Vancouver next June. 

“As the draw unfolded, you could feel the energy rise throughout the entire thing. And then once teams were named, that was it. It was go time … it's quite something to be a part of that,” Adcock said at Monday’s news conference at Killarney Community Centre.

“I'm jealous looking at this facility, because it's amazing and not what we had as players,” said Carl Valentine, who was a star player for the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Vancouver 86ers, and the Canadian Men’s National Team from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. 

“When I came over to Vancouver to play for the Whitecaps we trained at Empire Stadium. We had turf there, or what people thought was turf, but I think it was some paint that was put on concrete, because it was pretty bad,” Valentine joked, adding that he also trained at Templeton High School in Grandview-Woodland, which was not great either.

Adcock described the work at Killarney Park as an example of “layered on legacy,” for the South Vancouver neighbourhood that builds on the investments there for the 2010 Olympics.

For the Olympics, the city spent $15 million to build a new Killarney ice rink that now serves the community. In contrast, the FIFA training site will cost about $24 million, and lasting upgrades, like new field lights, electronic utility upgrades, and improved drainage and irrigation – while surely welcome improvements compared to soccer facilities of decades past – are comparatively minor. 

Portable player locker rooms and press conference spaces will be removed after the tournament, while the specialty high-performance grass that’s been installed will be replaced with synthetic turf in the next few years, Mack said. 

The city had initially planned to build an additional temporary training site at Memorial South Park for FIFA, but that plan was scrapped early this year – just as construction was scheduled to begin – due to resident pushback and an agreement to use the National Soccer Development Centre in UBC instead.

Mack noted the park board’s “sincere appreciation to the Killarney Park users for their patience and understanding over the past year,” during construction, as well as the support from the Killarney Community Center Association.

Meanwhile, the Squamish Nation has earmarked a “substantial percentage” of its FIFA funding toward building a new outdoor field facility, which is still in early planning stages. “We are extremely excited about this initiative and the lasting benefits it will bring to our community, especially to our youth,” said Tewanee Joseph, who is the CEO of the Squamish Nation’s Major Sports, Entertainment, and Marquee Events Secretariat. 

As government partners, the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations each received $6 million in FIFA funding from the province.  

Coordinating with local businesses and organizations

For Councillor Rebecca Bligh, there’s more work that needs to be done to figure out the best way for Vancouver to host the many visitors coming to the city next summer.

Bligh held a meeting last Friday with businesses and local organizations that want more coordination with the city and information on how they’ll be supported during the tournament. 

“I think what they're looking for is a cross-functional roundtable, particularly around what happens in nightclubs and bars around sporting events,” and how organizations will be supported if and when there’s an increased demand for their services, Bligh said.

“One of the issues that we hear about is increases in gender-based violence and violence in general,” around this sort of major event, Bligh said.

Bligh wants to see the city “provide resources and education” for establishments, particularly where people are drinking, to predict and respond to violent incidents, while also coordinating with frontline services like Atira, Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, and Battered Women’s Support Services that support at-risk women and gender-diverse people. 

There is also a need for an ambassador program like the one that existed during the Olympics, co-ordinated through community policing centres and business improvement associations, that can help visitors with wayfinding and public information, Bligh said. 

Bligh plans to bring forward a motion in late January or early February to advance formal coordination between the city and local organizations that will interact with the influx of visitors during FIFA. 

You don’t throw a party to make money

Zooming out to compare Vancouver to other recent World Cup hosts, Vancouver and Canada’s costs are significantly lower than those of previous hosts such as South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014, according to Simon Kuper, author of Soccernomics. 

U.S. and Canadian hosts, including Vancouver, are in a “very good place” financially compared to countries like Brazil and South Africa, Kuper told Vancity Lookout, because most 2026 host cities are able to use existing stadiums and surrounding infrastructure. 

In June, the city projected its direct costs for hosting to be between $261 and $281 million, which could also increase due to “various factors outside the city’s control,” stated a city press release at the time. The city expects to eventually offset most of those costs through revenues – primarily sourced through a temporary tax on short-term accommodations, in effect from 2023 to 2030. 

In terms of the legacy of FIFA, the province and tourism advocacy group Destination BC is projecting over $1 billion in additional tourism spending in Greater Vancouver in the five years following the World Cup. “I have quite a bit of confidence in the Destination BC’s predictions,” Adcock told Vancity Lookout, explaining the projections are based on visitor behaviour patterns following the 2010 Olympics.

Vancouver’s host committee is also trying create an operational legacy where the “massive group project” of FIFA planning will strengthen how different levels of government, security agencies, and local industry work together in the future, Adcock said.  

However, Kuper takes a more cynical view. “This economic talk is bogus. No serious economists believe it … This is not going to benefit Vancouver economically, but that's not how we should be thinking about it,” he said. “You've got to understand it as a party. You don't throw a party because you want to make money out of it. You throw a party because you know it will make you happy and your friends happy.” 

Hosting FIFA should be seen as a “social bonus” that brings locals together, he added.

Getting involved 

For those trying to get tickets to the games, there are several opportunities. Fans can apply directly to FIFA for tickets through its random selection draw from December 11 until January 13, while resale tickets will be available for purchase on its platform starting on December 15. Those options require users to make a FIFA ID. 

Tickets to Canada’s first game in Vancouver versus Qatar are currently reselling on secondary sites like Stubhub in the price range of $800 to $4,700 per ticket. The cheapest resale ticket currently for any game at BC Place is just under $400. 

Meanwhile, the city is holding a draw for 26 pairs of tickets for anyone who contributes $26 or more to Level the Field – a charity that supports amateur sports access for equity-seeking groups. Members of CanadaRED, Canada Soccer’s fan engagement program, will get special access to a draw for tickets to a Team Canada game, starting December 11. 

For those who can’t afford or aren’t lucky enough to get match tickets, the city plans to host a free fan festival at the PNE during FIFA, centred around the new PNE Amphitheatre, with capacity for at least 25,000 visitors per day. 

Additionally, the Squamish Nation will host 16 public watch parties, with youth soccer, entertainment and activities. “We're inviting all people to come to our community,” Joseph said. 

As the calendar turns to 2026 the preparations around FIFA will only intensify, like the nervous party host bustling around before people arrive, as city officials refine budgets and logistics, hotels and short-term accommodations book up, and hub venues like BC Place, the PNE, and Killarney get finished and decorated in preparation for the arrival of our guests.