In separate public meetings next week, Vancouver Park Board commissioners and Vancouver City Council are expected to approve an initial contract award for the construction of the two official training sites in Vancouver for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
These temporary training sites will be highly secure and restricted to the visiting national teams in the lead-up to and during the tournament.
Redacted Park Board staff documents that are part of next week’s Park Board meeting agenda show that as of October 2023, the City of Vancouver’s capital budget for both training sites is $37 million.
As announced in July 2024, the selected locations for the training sites are Killarney Park’s north field (currently configured for baseball and softball, situated immediately north of Killarney Pool) and Memorial South Park’s oval track field.
To suit the needs of the world’s best soccer athletes and to follow FIFA venue requirements, both sites will undergo major upgrades, including the installation of FIFA-calibre natural grass, field lighting, spectator seating, and team facilities, such as locker rooms, a press conference room, and other media facilities, as well as coach bus parking and loading. Some of these aspects will be permanent legacy improvements, but much of the changes will be temporary fixtures.
Next week, both elected bodies are expected to approve two contract awards worth a combined total of $25 million to Canadian Turner Construction. This includes a contract worth $16.25 million for the early site preparation works of the Killarney Park training site, and $8.75 million for the early site preparation works of the Memorial South Park training site.
Existing condition of Killarney Park:
Existing condition of Killarney Park, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Existing condition of Killarney Park, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Future condition of Killarney Park for the 2026 FIFA World Cup:
Artistic rendering of Killarney Park as a training site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (City of Vancouver)
The early works that will be performed by Canadian Turner Construction include site preparations, construction staging, excavation and removal of poor peat soils, subgrade preparations and site rough grading, and the installation of a natural grass pitch, parking lot, and facilities, as well as service connections and, operations compound preparations, and the ordering of tall field lights.
City staff note that both training sites will follow FIFA’s natural grass standards, with the installation of the specialized grass sod scheduled for September 2025 in order to “establish the grass roots during the fall growing season and manage it to ensure compliance with specifications during the spring growing season of 2026 prior to the event.”
Both sites are required to be fully ready by the end of December 2025. If the contracts to Canadian Turner Construction are not awarded next week, Park Board staff warn the project faces the possibility of not meeting the deadline.
Site preparation construction work at both training sites is expected to begin in January 2025.
It is also noted by City staff that a second bidding process will take place in the first quarter of 2025 to award the separate contract for all remaining works to establish the training sites, and restore the park spaces for public use, which is anticipated by Fall 2026. With $25 million awarded to Canadian Turner Construction, there is still up to $12 million available for this separate contract for the remaining works, based on the $37 million budget figure.
The contract awards require the approval of both the Park Board (due to the locational jurisdiction of the park space) and City Council (final approval for all Park Board contract awards worth $2 million or more).
Existing condition of Memorial South Park’s oval:
Existing condition of Memorial South Park, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Existing condition of Memorial South Park, Vancouver. (Google Maps)
Future condition of Memorial South Park’s oval for the 2026 FIFA World Cup:
Artistic rendering of Memorial South Park as a training site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (City of Vancouver)
Exclusive use of the training sites will be granted 14 days before the start of the tournament until the last match is played in Vancouver. FIFA will pay the Park Board a daily rental fee — unspecified in the redacted report — for the use of the park space allocated for the training sites.
While the precise budget of constructing the temporary training sites was not previously known, these costs are not new, as they have already been incorporated into the City of Vancouver’s publicly announced estimated $246 million budget to cover the municipal government’s portion of its responsibilities for staging the FIFA World Cup. This includes not only the two training sites, but also public safety and security, organizing the FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE, city decorations, traffic management, and other required municipal services.
The City of Vancouver is covering the vast majority of its $246 million FIFA World Cup expenditures through a temporary added hotel room tax through 2030. Since February 1, 2023, an additional 2.5% sales tax — the temporary Major Events Municipal and Regional District Tax (Major Events MRDT) — has been applied to hotel room bookings in Vancouver.
As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized in November 2024, the temporary hotel tax’s first year in 2023 — which was not a full calendar year, as it spanned 11 months from February to December — collected $29.2 million. This puts the tax on track to reach its revenue goal of $230 million by 2030, with Mayor Ken Sim suggesting this tax paid by visitors could potentially be extended beyond 2030 to help cover any cost overruns and/or revenue shortfalls.
Although the training sites will temporarily use existing park fields, the prolonged public closure of these fields has been controversial for some sports groups and residents.
The redacted Park Board staff report also notes that aside from Killarney Park and Memorial South Park, other training site location options that were previously considered include Trillium Park, Empire Fields at Hastings Park, Strathcona Park, and Jericho Beach Park’s west field. During the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Trillium Park and Empire Fields were used as official training sites for the visiting teams.
Locations of Memorial South Park (left) and Killarney Park (right), which will be upgraded for their use as the training sites of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the driving times between both parks. (Google Maps)