First of 2,900 FIFA World Cup street banners goes up in Vancouver | Daily Hive

2026 FIFA World Cup street banners installed on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)

Vancouver’s official 2026 FIFA World Cup countdown clock installed at Terry Fox Plaza outside BC Place Stadium is now ticking down to just 50 days before the start of the tournament.

With the tournament now merely weeks away, crews have begun the process of installing FIFA World Cup-branded banners onto thousands of street lamp posts.

As of this week, some of the first of these street banners can now be found throughout Granville Street within downtown Vancouver, and many more — including other types of banners and signage — will be installed in other areas of the city to help visually activate and energize Vancouver as a host city of the tournament.

This also comes just a week ahead of the Vancouver Convention Centre’s hosting of the high-profile FIFA Congress on April 30, with 1,600 delegates from over 200 countries converging on the city to discuss the sport of soccer and internal matters relating to the international sport federation, including the selection of the host countries for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2031 and 2035.

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Granville Street in the city centre is expected to be one of the busiest hubs for festivities. During the five-week-long tournament period beginning on June 11, a five-block stretch of the Granville Strip between West Georgia and Davie streets will become vehicle-free for its transformation into a lively FIFA pedestrian zone, activated by live music, seating, patios, vendors, and food options.

There is a range of street banner designs, including those featuring the tournament logo, “VANCOUVER” city name, a stylized “2026” symbol, or other styles based on the official branding scheme.

Upon an inquiry by Daily Hive Urbanized today, the City of Vancouver shared that approximately 2,900 FIFA-branded street banners will be installed across the city — roughly half the number put up for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

2026 fifa world cup banners granville street vancouver

2026 FIFA World Cup street banners installed on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)

All of this is part of broader strategy of blanketing Vancouver with extensive FIFA-branded decorations, dressings, and signage in and around downtown Vancouver, especially around the stadium, as well as at Hastings Park/PNE (where the FIFA World Cup Fan Festival will be held), Vancouver International Airport, important road corridors, near key public transit hubs, and other sites such as the training facilities at Killarney Park and the National Soccer Development Centre at the University of British Columbia.

The countdown clock outside the stadium was installed in June 2025, marking the one-year countdown. Some of the earliest tournament-time decorations were installed in February 2026 on the storefronts of the shuttered Hudson’s Bay Company building in downtown.

The City of Vancouver is serving as the local organizing committee for the FIFA World Cup. In March 2025, following a procurement process, the City awarded TIRA Consultants as its contractor for wayfinding, dressing, and signage services for the tournament, worth $2.1 million.

2026 FIFA World Cup street banners installed on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)

Weeks before the 2010 Olympics, about 6,000 street lamp banners designed with the official branding for the Olympics were installed by the municipal government across Vancouver at a cost of about $650,000. Later that year, after removal, the banners were sold to the public as souvenirs.

Over the coming weeks, construction will begin on the permanent new giant VANCOUVER three-dimensional letter sign at the plaza entrance into Canada Place — driven by the significant interest from visitors and locals with the previous temporary signs in the area. While it will be installed in time for the tournament, it is not part of the decoration program of FIFA. The City has yet to unveil the design of this VANCOUVER sign, which will include a creative contribution from First Nations artists for the installation’s wrap.

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