It's 1 year until the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Is Vancouver ready?
CBC
One year out from the FIFA World Cup, questions remain about where soccer fans visiting Vancouver will stay and how much it will cost to keep the city safe.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim spoke to reporters at an event marking the one-year countdown to the tournament on Wednesday, saying the city began working on security plans even before it was confirmed to host seven 2026 World Cup games.
He says those plans were "augmented" after 11 people were killed when a man drove a car into a crowd at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in April.
The security costs have not been publicly released, but Sim says the city will "make the necessary investments to make sure that people are safe in the city of Vancouver" during the event.
Spencer Chandra Herbert, B.C.'s minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport, says the province will release a "full costing" later this month, updating how much it expects to spend on the World Cup.
Back in April 2024, B.C. organizers estimated the cost at between $483 million and $581 million for city and provincial services, as well as upgrades to B.C. Place stadium.
Vancouver Coun. Sean Orr said he isn't convinced the economic benefits of the tournament will outweigh concerns about cost overruns, security, and potential long-term effects on housing affordability.
"I just don't know if throwing a party in the midst of, you know, [a] potential downturn in the economy is the best plan right now," he told CBC News.
"We've got threats of tariffs, we've got, you know, downturns in the market ... is this the best use of our resources right now? That's my big concern."
About 350,000 people are expected to visit Vancouver during the World Cup, Chandra Herbert said at Wednesday's event.
Questions have been raised about where they'll stay, as a city report released in April noted there are just 13,000 rooms spread across 78 hotels within the municipality.
The report found that Vancouver lost about 550 hotel rooms between 2020 and 2022, in part because some older hotels were converted to housing for vulnerable people.
Royce Chwin, CEO of Destination Vancouver, said the seven matches Vancouver will host will be spread throughout June and July of next year, leading to an "ebb and flow" of visitors.
"We had nine hotels in the pipeline a couple years ago," he told CBC News. "We're now up to 23 because we're getting the word out there."
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