Thursday May 2, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Two of the seven World Cup Games 2026 will feature Team Canada. Much of the rest for five other games is still flexible. That includes the price tag.
Aiming to assure the public that years of future tourism will result from the soccer games in Vancouver, the announcement on Tuesday April 30 also delivered excitement about improvements to BC Stadium that would benefit all other performance bookings and audiences in the years ahead.
BC Stadium General Manager Chris May was excited about improved accessibility with the addition of more and larger elevators at the stadium, and that BC Place would provide a world class experience in Vancouver for 350,000 visitor.
Cost profile:
The current cost estimate for BC to host FIFA World Cup in 2026 is now $483 million (low estimate) to $581 million.
Each partner will make their contribution up to these amounts:
- $276 million City of Vancouver (low estimate $246 million): Integrated public safety and security within hosting area, provision of team training sites, FIFA Fan Festival, decoration and brand protection, traffic and stadium zone management, other required municipal services.
- $196 million BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo) for use of BC Place stadium (low estimate $149 million): Capital costs for stadium upgrades and operational costs during the tournament.
- $109 million Province of BC (low estimate 88 million): Other core hosting costs including essential services required to support the City. These include provincial safety and security, transportation, emergency management, and health services.
Benefits are a ‘no-brainer’:
The announcement was made at the stadium by Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport Minister Lana Popham who says she is “confident” in the numbers and that there is “room built-in for inflation & healthy contingencies”.
Details of the cost and revenue estimates were delivered earlier in the day in a tech briefing to media.
“This is a no-brainer, the benefits are massive,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim ‘wearing his accountant’s hat’.
Sim and the province are looking at the benefits that will roll out beyond 2026 including these estimates (2026-2031): 1 million additional visitors to Vancouver and BC, $1 billion in visitor spending, and $1 billion contribution to the province’s GDP.
Other events that will benefit from upgrades at BC Place Stadium are the Invictus Games in 2025 and high-profile stadium-filling concerts over the years ahead. The stadium seats 54,500.
Federal & city on board:
Federal Minister of Sport and Physical Activity Carla Qualtrough attended to announce the nearly $116 million federal contribution to the Vancouver games. The games “will unite our country like nothing else can”, Qualtrough said on Tuesday at the event.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim was excited about his city hosting the games. He said that FIFA games at BC Place in 2026 will “transform our city” and provide opportunities “to inspire youth, families and future players”.
“FIFA World Cup 2026 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase our city and we’re ready to welcome the world!,” said Sim later when posting photos of the April 30 press conference in social media.
In addition to the Province of BC, BC Pavilion Corporation (stadium operator), and the City of Vancouver the other provincial partners are the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, the Integrated Safety and Security Unit (Vancouver Police Dept, City of Vancouver, BC RCMP, Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General), and YVR Airport Authority.
BC politics of it all:
Way back in 2018 then Premier John Horgan gave a flat ‘no’ to Vancouver hosting the games, saying the price tag was too uncertain because FIFA was saying the costs would be open-ended.
As a sports enthusiast himself (and probably owing political favours to the growing soccer business based in his home town of Langford), Horgan knew that if FIFA was interested in Vancouver, it would eventually happen and that the Province of BC would have to comply.
Evidently during the pandemic in 2020 the provincial budget was clouded by uncertainties, until it was clear that economic recovery would unfold.
Now the costs can be more accurate, Popham says, though there is a big contingency to deal with the impacts of both inflation and unforeseen requirements that could come related to world events and natural disasters.
Popham doesn’t seem overly happy about having to wear the political heat. She didn’t post anything about the April 30 announcement on her social media feed. In addition to missing her first-love — the agriculture and food file — the Saanich South MLA is having to wear some of the failure of the BC Museum upgrade fiasco (within the culture and heritage file) hung around her neck.
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke has been covering news of the south Vancouver Island region of BC since 2008, branching out to provincial and federal news analysis in 2017 (based out of Langford, BC).
Ms Brooke is the founder, editor and publisher of a series of publications that have served attentive readers since 2008: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (2020 to present at IslandSocialTrends.ca).
Mary P Brooke, B.Sc. (health science) reported daily on COVID news at the provincial level during 2020-2022. She has reported alongside the BC Legislative Press Gallery since then.
Mother to now four grown children, Mary P Brooke ran for school trustee in 2022 (SD62 /west shore) to highlight how parents and families are less well served by BC education than they could be.
In 2023 Ms Brooke was nominated for a Jack Webster Foundation award that recognizes a woman journalist who contributes to her community through journalism.
In 2024, Ms Brooke launched the Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS) to further contribute to her community around emergency preparedness aspects of urban living.