Two Vancouver fields will be getting upgrades, after they were selected as the city’s official training sites for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Training sites are a requirement in each of the 16 host cities for the tournament. The city says the two fields in Vancouver — located in Killarney Park and Memorial South Park — will undergo upgrades to ensure they fall in line with FIFA’s standards. That includes ensuring they are equipped with lights, as well as team facilities, including locker rooms and a press conference room.
Work on the fields will begin in January of 2025, with the city saying upgrades will wrap “in time for the World Cup in June 2026.”
Crews will work on the grass and gravel fields at Killarney Park North and the Memorial South Park Oval. The city says renderings for each site will be available on Development Permit signs outside the parks starting this August.
Throughout construction, the training sites will be off limits to the public.
“Over the coming months, we will be working with various permitted and non-permitted sport, education, and community groups to find appropriate locations to suit their needs,” the city explained Tuesday.
So far, the city has not said how much the work on the two training facilities will cost. It adds it will be looking for “an expression of interest” from vendors for things like sod for the two sites, starting this month.
The cost of hosting seven FIFA World Cup matches in Vancouver has raised many questions over the past two years, since the city was announced as one of 16 hosts.
In April, the B.C. government shared that it would be on the hook for much more than initially thought, with estimated costs more than doubling, rising to between $483 million and $581 million, from between $240 million and $260 million in June 2022.
Initially, Vancouver was set to host five games. The addition of two games contributed to the rising cost estimates, the province has said. However, while estimated costs have risen, the B.C. government has said so too have estimated revenues and recoveries.
The province said in April that B.C. is getting $116 million in direct funding from the federal government. An additional $230 million in revenue is anticipated from things like the major events municipal and regional district tax introduced by Vancouver in 2023, with another up to $90 million expected from other revenue sources, the government continued.
With all these factors considered, the province said the “net core cost of seven” games is expected to be between $100 million and $145 million.
Polling results released by the Angus Reid Institute in early July showed people living in B.C. were three times as likely to say hosting the soccer tournament isn’t worth it, given the rising cost.