'We were a full tilt World Cup host city': Vancouver's FIFA head on event success | Daily Hive

'We were a full tilt World Cup host city': Vancouver's FIFA head on tournament success

Canadian fans march to BC Place Stadium, with the route backdropped by Science World's transformation into the adidas Trionda match soccer ball of the FIFA World Cup, as seen on June 18, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

For more than two and a half years, Jessie Adcock helped prepare Vancouver to host its largest event since the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Then, over 39 days in late spring and early summer, the 2026 FIFA World Cup unfolded across the city.

Now, the tournament is over. The crowds have long dispersed, and crews are well into the process of removing the decorations, signs, and temporary installations that transformed Vancouver with the vibrant look of an official host city.

Just days after the tournament concluded, the Lead and Chief Delivery Officer for the City of Vancouver’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Vancouver Host Committee says the event exceeded even the expectations of those who spent years preparing for it — not simply because seven matches were successfully staged at BC Place Stadium, but because Vancouver fully embraced the spirit of hosting one of the world’s largest sporting events.

Adcock said she was still processing a mixture of pride, gratitude, and optimism following the conclusion of an event that required years of preparation and constant coordination across numerous agencies and entities.

“It was such a great experience. I’m so grateful, so proud, and then also just hopeful for our future in Vancouver and beyond. I think it’s hopefully going to lead to some great opportunities for us,” Adcock told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview on July 23.

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Long before the first kickoff of the 2026 tournament at BC Place Stadium, organizers knew Vancouver could successfully stage FIFA World Cup matches. The stadium had already proven its FIFA capabilities more than a decade earlier, when it hosted nine matches during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup — more than any other venue in Canada — including the championship final.

What they could not predict was whether Vancouver would capture the unmistakable atmosphere associated with the exponentially larger men’s FIFA World Cup as it has unfolded in host cities around the globe.

Looking back, Adcock believes Vancouver’s ability to capture that spirit became one of the event’s greatest successes.

Jessie Adcock, Host Committee Lead and Chief Delivery Officer for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Vancouver Host Committee. (Concord Pacific)

“You don’t always know if that sort of global spirit that you see in World Cups hosted in other continents is going to translate and come to a first-time World Cup city,” she said.

“The thing that exceeded my expectations is that we were a full tilt World Cup host city, with the fan marches, the watch parties, the enthusiasm, the lineups, the fan festival, the chants, and the celebrations.”

Fans from around the world marched through the streets in and around Downtown Vancouver. Granville Street became a sea of supporters following major matches. The FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE fairgrounds in Hastings Park attracted more 550,000 visits over the course of the tournament, while BC Place Stadium hosted approximately 370,000 spectators across seven matches.

“We leaned all the way into it, collectively,” she said. “Fans, visitors, locals, residents, tourists, business, country, soccer teams, all of that. So I feel like that part probably exceeded my expectations the most is that we really did replicate that global host city vibe.”

Among the tournament’s most enduring images in Vancouver were the scenes on a pedestrianized Granville Street, where tens of thousands of people gathered to celebrate after matches, often late into the night. The Granville Street Pedestrian Zone became an immediate success when it opened on the tournament’s first day on June 11. The atmosphere reached an early peak just days later, when Vancouver hosted its first match between Australia and Turkey.

Adcock believes those scenes in the street demonstrated the potential of Vancouver’s public spaces.

She compared the atmosphere to the 2010 Winter Olympics, but suggested this summer offered another demonstration of how streets can become vibrant gathering places when properly supported through programming, activations, and public safety.

“I think Vancouver has shown that it has a potential to be on par with any experience and any global tourist destination,” Adcock told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“During the Olympics, too, there was such an amazing atmosphere and we’re so lucky that we got to replicate it and then some, with the beautiful weather we were having. Those moments are memorable and they last with you for a lifetime.”

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5 p.m. on Saturday, June 13, 2026 at Downtown Vancouver’s Granville Street Pedestrian Zone for the FIFA World Cup. (Kenneth Chan)

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Victory celebrations on Granville Street in Downtown Vancouver on June 28, 2026, after Canada’s historic FIFA World Cup round of 32 match win against South Africa. (Kenneth Chan)

She also particularly emphasized the importance of the feeling of public safety.

People were able to relax and participate because they genuinely felt secure in the crowded public spaces. No major issues were reported by the Vancouver Police Department, which deployed up to 1,300 police officers at the peak of the tournament — using a combination of its own officers and the assistance of other police departments elsewhere in Metro Vancouver and in Alberta.

“I think people felt safe and because they felt safe, they were able to relax and enjoy and so I hope there’s more of that in our future here,” she said.

Although years were spent preparing for virtually every operational scenario imaginable, Adcock said the reality of hosting the tournament still required constant adjustments.

Many situations simply could not be predicted beforehand.

One example came when Colombian supporters spontaneously gathered outside the Hyatt Regency Vancouver hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of their national team staying there.

“You can’t plan ahead for Colombian fans waiting outside the Hyatt Hotel for the Colombian team to come out and wave at them,” she said.

Instead of viewing these moments as operational problems, organizers tried to facilitate them wherever possible.

She credits the tournament’s success largely to close collaboration between agencies and organizations, and the constant communication that allowed organizers to adapt quickly as new situations emerged throughout the month.

“When we did get information about something that was going to happen, our first instinct was, how do we enable and support this and help it be as successful as possible?” said Adcock.

“As opposed to having any kind of reactionary lens to it that would tamp down the enthusiasm, we were more so in the place of, like, how can we enable this spirit?”

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Vancouver Police Department’s Mounted Unit during the march of Canadian fans to BC Place Stadium for the FIFA World Cup’s Canada vs. Switzerland match, as seen on June 24, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

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Colombia fans outside BC Place Stadium on July 7, 2026, just ahead of the match against Switzerland. (Kenneth Chan)

One criticism frequently heard during the tournament was that Vancouver’s free official FIFA Fan Festival was not open every day throughout the FIFA World Cup — for all days when there were matches being played at any of the 16 host cities. It was open for 28 select days throughout the 39-day tournament period, but closed on all Mondays and some Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Adcock acknowledged many visitors would have liked additional operating days for the region’s best live match watching experiences, but said the schedule ultimately reflected a balance between public access and the financial considerations of operating the fan festival.

Organizers still wanted to ensure that people without stadium match tickets always had somewhere to gather, while maintaining a free public experience. For that reason, the fan festival was a crucial part of the tournament operations and overall experience. The PNE fairgrounds in its fan festival mode had a capacity for 25,000 people at any given time, including 10,000 within the new amphitheatre.

Looking back, Adcock believes they found the right balance.

“The decision around that generally, I would say, was economics driven,” she told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“We were really, really cognizant of wanting to create a free atmosphere so that people could come spend the day, watch music, watch matches without having to pay anything. Ultimately, we also have to balance that with cost management. Even in hindsight, looking back, I feel like we struck the balance right.”

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Mexico vs. England match screening at FIFA World Cup Fan Festival Vancouver at the PNE on July 5, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

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Canadian fans at the amphitheatre at FIFA Fan Festival Vancouver during the match against Morocco, as seen on July 4, 2026. (Kenny Ho)

Although the tournament has come to a close, the physical work has not fully ended.

Crews are now removing temporary signs, decorations, and other event materials installed throughout Vancouver. Adcock estimated the broader dismantling process could take approximately six to 12 weeks.

The installations in and around BC Place Stadium have since been dismantled, and the venue hosted its first post-tournament event yesterday: a CFL game between the BC Lions and Toronto Argonauts on a newly installed artificial turf field that replaced the tournament’s temporary natural grass.

The most significant and technically complex installation, however, will remain in place for a little longer. Science World’s dome will continue to resemble a giant adidas Trionda — the official match ball of the 2026 FIFA World Cup — until the Soccer & Technology exhibition from the FIFA Museum closes in early September, after Labour Day.

The final financial accounting of the tournament’s expenses will take considerably longer. The goal is to release the final accounting in early Spring 2027.

The City’s pre-tournament figures were projections, while many actual costs were incurred during the final month of preparation and the 39-day tournament period. Adcock said invoices are still arriving and would need to be paid and reconciled.

In late May 2026, shortly before the tournament was set to begin, the Government of British Columbia provided an update on the estimated total public costs of hosting the tournament in Vancouver. At the time, it was stated that a higher confidence estimate pegs total federal, provincial, and municipal public costs at between $685 million and $729 million, which includes between $320 million and $338 million for the City of Vancouver’s portion of the costs.

The lions’ share of the costs incurred by the municipal government are being covered by an added 2.5 per cent temporary FIFA World Cup hotel sales tax applied to overnight stays for hotel properties within the borders of Vancouver. This tax paid by visitors first began in February 2023, with the municipal and provincial governments projecting it will raise at least about $260 million for the City by 2030, which is when the tax is expected to expire.

As of March 2026, this temporary FIFA World Cup hotel sales tax — called the Major Events Municipal and Regional District Tax — has already raised about $106 million.

“Everything going into the event was a projection and the costs were generally incurred in the last month,” she said.

“So the invoices are still rolling in. We still have to, you know, pay and reconcile all the invoices and so that’ll probably take us to the end of the year and then we will take a look at everything and be in a position to share that out early spring.”

The installation of FIFA World Cup street banners on Cambie Street outside Vancouver City Hall, as seen on May 21, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

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Spectators lining up at SkyTrain’s Main Street-Science World Station after the FIFA World Cup’s BC Place Stadium match between Egypt and New Zealand on June 21, 2026, with Science World’s giant Trionda soccer ball in the background. (Kenneth Chan)

While many residents will remember the festivities and atmosphere, Adcock believes one of the tournament’s most valuable legacies cannot be physically seen.

She argues that the relationships and expertise developed while preparing for the FIFA World Cup should now position Vancouver to pursue additional international sporting events, concerts, conventions, and tourism opportunities.

She believes Vancouver has built what she calls “operational muscle” — stronger relationships between agencies, increased expertise in safety and security, and greater experience coordinating a major international event.

“Now is really the time to showcase our abilities,” Adcock told Daily Hive Urbanized.

When asked if another FIFA World Cup host city were to seek her advice in the future, Adcock said organizers should first understand that the FIFA World Cup is unlike any other sporting event.

“You have to appreciate what World Cup is,” she said.

She noted that supporters follow national teams continuously between tournaments and that allegiances often span generations.

“A lot of these allegiances to these teams are multi-generational and are rooted in tradition, culture, and heritage,” said Adcock.

“I think that understanding that will help you design a plan locally to cater to a global audience.”

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Jessie Adcock. (Rob Gilbert/submitted)

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