Vancouver has not been well-visited by the Canadian men’s national team in recent years.
BC Place has seen just one match, a low-stakes Nations League game against Curaçao, over the last six years. By comparison, BMO Field in Toronto has hosted 11 men’s national team matches during that timespan.
And during Canada’s incredible World Cup qualifying run for the 2022 tournament in Qatar, Vancouver was shut out completely. Instead, Canada Soccer opted for four matches in Toronto, two in Edmonton, and one in Hamilton during the final round of Concacaf qualifying.
Geography has often been cited as a major reason why Vancouver doesn’t host more men’s national team matches despite having great fan support and Canada’s best stadium. After all, many of the team’s top players like Alphonso Davies (Germany) and Jonathan David (France) play overseas in Europe. It’s quicker for them to get to Toronto than Vancouver.
But that’s not the biggest reason Vancouver struggles to attract marquee matches, according to Canadian men’s national team head coach Jesse Marsch. The problem lies with the artificial turf at BC Place.
“It’s not [geography] as much as it’s the surface. This is the main issue, is the BC Place surface,” Marsch said on a recent trip to Vancouver when asked by Daily Hive.
“Our players aren’t too snobbish to play on artificial [turf]. They’re ok with it. But it’s usually about getting the opponents to come.”
Marsch said Canada’s lineup of opponents in 2025 will be the “best-ever matches that the national team has played.” Many of those matches will be friendlies, given Canada has already qualified for the World Cup as one of the three host nations.
Canada will play a Gold Cup match at BC Place in June, which Marsch confirmed will be played on a natural grass surface.
Grass is being installed at BC Place for next year’s FIFA World Cup, and Vancouver will play a prominent role by hosting seven matches, including at least two featuring Canada.
But is there a way to have grass for matches before the World Cup?
Marsch said he’s been involved in talks with BC Place concerning this subject.
“There’s more efforts to try to think about how to get grass into BC Place and I know that it was done for Wrexham recently. We’ve already visited with BC Place about the potential to do this more often, and then that will be also done for the World Cup,” Marsch said.
“[We] talked about how it went with Wrexham, what we thought could be learned from that, and how we could do that for the future, and certainly even leading up to the World Cup.”
Marsch likes to call his team “the people’s team,” and spoke about the importance of having the national team play in different locations across the country.
“We have to be in more communities where people can touch, see, and feel their heroes and their players, and their team.”
But not on turf.
“I come to Vancouver every time [I can]. It’s one of the best cities in the world. So it’s not like we don’t want to be here.
“It’s just really finding a way to play on grass.”