Opinion: The 2026 FIFA World Cup belongs to 16 host cities, and Vancouver is turning its share into something much bigger

As the countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup has ticked from months to weeks, days, and now mere hours, I have noticed two very different reactions to Vancouver’s role as a host city.

One group seems to think the whole thing is grossly overhyped — that it is just a handful of soccer matches at BC Place Stadium, and a complete waste of money. And that life will largely carry on with major traffic disruptions and without much excitement.

They also want to avoid Vancouver during the tournament.

The other group has gone in the opposite direction, arguing that this will somehow be the biggest event in Vancouver’s history — somehow bigger than the 2010 Winter Olympics, perhaps even on par with the transformative city-building Expo ’86 World’s Fair, and that it is equivalent to 30 to 40 Super Bowls.

The latter of overestimating is more concerning, as such comparisons create highly unrealistic expectations for what the FIFA World Cup can achieve for a single host city — and those expectations set the event up for disappointment.

Certainly, neither of these views get it right.

The reality sits somewhere in the middle.

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First, let us deal with those who are underestimating what is coming, as there are far more people underestimating the event’s scope and reach than overestimating it.

The FIFA World Cup is not just another sporting event. It is the championship tournament of the world’s most popular sport by a staggering margin. There is nothing else quite like it. Entire countries stop to watch. Communities around the globe plan their schedules around it.

For billions of people, this is the ultimate sporting event.

Vancouver is going to host seven matches, including two knockout matches — a round of 32 match and a round of 16 match. Hundreds of thousands of out-of-province visitors are expected. Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people around the world will catch a glimpse of the city through tournament broadcasts.

Hosting “only” seven international soccer matches over a 39-day tournament period might sound insignificant at first glance, but that perspective reflects a misunderstanding of how the FIFA World Cup is structured.

Unlike the Olympics, where a single host city stages virtually every competition, the FIFA World Cup is intentionally distributed across multiple cities. Historically, individual host cities have typically hosted anywhere from just a few matches to roughly 10, depending on the size of their stadium, the capabilities of the venue, and the host city. The 2026 edition of the tournament is no different.

The largest and most strategically important venues are generally awarded the most and high-profile matches, particularly the early knockout rounds, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and championship final, which generate the greatest demand and require the highest seating capacities and hospitality offerings.

Viewed through that lens, Vancouver’s match allocation is substantial.

Among the tournament’s 16 host cities, Vancouver will join Houston, Miami, and Boston in hosting seven matches. Only four cities — Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York/New Jersey, and Dallas — will host more. Dallas will host nine matches, while Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York/New Jersey will each host eight.

Vancouver will host more matches than Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area, Kansas City, Toronto, and Philadelphia, which will each host six. It will also host more than Mexico City, which will stage five matches, and Guadalajara and Monterrey, which will each host four.

For a metropolitan region of over three million people and a stadium with a relatively modest capacity of 52,497 spectators in its tournament configuration, Vancouver has secured a notably prominent role within the event. Far from being an afterthought, it ranks among the FIFA World Cup’s most significant host cities, even though BC Place Stadium’s capacity is the fourth lowest of the 16 venues — considerably lower than the 80,824-seat Mexico City Stadium (Estadio Azteca), which will host the tournament’s opening match, and the 80,663-seat New York New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium), which will host the championship final.

Some of the local disappointment following the FIFA World Cup Draw in December 2025 — which determined the group-stage matchups and host city assignments for the tournament’s 48 participating nations — was also misplaced.

Many had hoped Vancouver would host traditional soccer powerhouses such as Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Portugal, and/or Spain during the group stage. But once FIFA determined the city’s match allocation, the participating teams were assigned through a random draw.

Host cities do not get to choose which countries they receive — it is ultimately a matter of luck through the draw.

BC Place Stadium was assigned group stage matches involving Australia, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, New Zealand, Qatar, Switzerland, and Turkey, while a potential round of 16 appearance by Portugal could still bring Cristiano Ronaldo to Vancouver. The draw may not have delivered every soccer giant that some supporters hoped for, but that was a matter of chance, not a reflection of the city’s importance within the tournament.

Beyond the field of play, within the areas that are directly under the influence and control of local organizers, Vancouver’s official FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE fairgrounds in Hastings Park is expected to attract large crowds over its 28-day run that could exceed the cumulative attendance of the seven matches at BC Place Stadium.

Visitors to the free fan festival can expect a world-class experience across the transformed fairgrounds — something far different from what they are accustomed to seeing during the annual PNE Fair.

Free fairground access during the fan festival offers free live match viewings on numerous giant screens spread across different zones of Hastings Park, along with access to extensive curated food and beverage offerings, sponsor activations, art installations, official FIFA World Cup merchandise sales, live music, performances, and other entertainment and programming.

For a more premium experience, there is also a ticketed option for live match viewings and major concerts at the PNE’s newly-built 10,000-capacity amphitheatre under a landmark mass-timber roof. Overall, the fan festival has a capacity for 25,000 people per day.

Indeed, the fan festival is a very big deal.

And credit where it is due: Vancouver has done a lot right.

Local organizers clearly understand that most people will not experience the FIFA World Cup from inside BC Place Stadium. They will experience it on the streets, on public transit,  at the official celebrations, and at unofficial live screenings and fan events at public spaces held by municipal governments and entities across Metro Vancouver. And in restaurants and bars, of course.

That is why we have seen Science World turned into a giant soccer ball — not any soccer ball, but the official adidas Trionda ball that will be played at all 16 stadiums in this tournament. Inside that dome is also an exhibition on the science behind the game, straight from the FIFA Museum in Zurich.

It is why public transit buses, trains, and ferries have received FIFA World Cup-themed wraps. There is even a fleet of TransLink buses with whimsical oversized soccer balls at the front of the vehicles.

It is why public art, murals, decorations, and activations are appearing in and near the Downtown Vancouver peninsula.

It is why five blocks of Granville Street in Downtown Vancouver are being closed to vehicles for its transformation into a pedestrian zone throughout the tournament’s entire duration, with businesses and patios spilling out into the street, public art installations, live music, programming and other activations.

And on one of the peaks of the mountains that backdrop Vancouver, installed on a barren ski slope of Grouse Mountain Resort, the world’s largest Canada flag — measuring 160 metres (525 ft.) in length and 80 metres (262 ft.) in width or a surface area of 12,800 sq. metres. (137,550 sq. ft.) — can now be seen from across the Metro Vancouver region.

Vancouver is not acting like a city that is simply hosting a few matches. It is acting like a city that is trying to make the most of a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

And that is very important because Vancouver is competing directly with 15 other host cities in Canada, the United States, and Mexico for visitors and and media travelling from around the world, as well as the limited pool of corporate dollars — especially from official tournament sponsors — for local sponsorship and/or creating on-site activations. Every host city is competing for attention, tourism dollars, media exposure, and lasting memories.

“Let’s face it, everyone, that there are 16 host cities trying to grab some of the world’s top spotlight. So what’s Destination Vancouver’s role in all of this? Well, we’ve actually been focused on two core things,” said Royce Chwin, president and CEO of Destination Vancouver, during a press conference on Monday.

“The first one, elevate and amplify all the great activations and experiences going on during World Cup for visitors and residents alike. And number two, bring Vancouver to the world for an interest in visiting Vancouver post-tournament.”

When people look back on this tournament years from now, some host cities will be remembered more fondly than others. Some will create an atmosphere that visitors never forget. Others will not.

Vancouver appears determined to be in the first category.

Chwin emphasized the impact of Science World’s geodesic dome transformation alone before the start of the tournament, sharing that Destination Vancouver was the primary financial backer for the complex and drastic temporary makeover of the landmark.

“It was our hope that this shot, that ball, would become the shot of the tournament, and that’s what’s starting to happen. The amount of media pickup, the amount of visitor pickup, the amount of content being produced is doing exactly what we hoped it was going to do, and we hope that shot, that ending, helps to tell the story about Vancouver better than any marketing campaign we could actually pull together in that way,” said Chwin.

“The Financial Times was sporting the front page, BBC Sports on their page as well, and the 16 cities all competing, they could have taken an image from any one of the cities, and they keep choosing Vancouver, and that’s exactly what we want to have happen.”

Vancouver also benefits from advantages that most other host cities simply do not have.

BC Place Stadium is one of the few FIFA World Cup venues located in the heart of a dense, highly walkable downtown. Within steps of the stadium, visitors can access rapid transit lines, hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, entertainment districts, and some of the city’s most recognizable attractions and sites. Fans can step out of a match and immediately immerse themselves in the broader host city experience.

That stands in stark contrast to many other FIFA World Cup venues across North America, where stadiums are isolated from urban centres and surrounded by vast expanses of surface parking lots and highways. Some stadiums are situated in far-flung suburban areas.

These are some of the reasons Vancouver recently topped sports journalist Ben Steiner’s ranking of all 16 FIFA World Cup host cities for Sports Illustrated. Steiner pointed specifically to Vancouver’s compact urban setting, public transit accessibility, natural scenery, and the ability for visitors to experience much of the city without needing a car.

Combined with the efforts to create a distinctive tournament atmosphere, it helps explain why Vancouver has attracted an outsized share of international attention in the lead-up to the tournament. Among 16 host cities competing for the world’s attention, Vancouver has positioned itself as one of the tournament’s standout destinations before a single match has even been played.

But acknowledging all of that — the effort to make a lasting impression among global audiences — does not mean we need to convince ourselves that this is bigger than 2010.

That is where some of the conversation — by others, not by Destination Vancouver — has started to drift a little too far.

The FIFA World Cup as a whole is absolutely comparable to the Summer Olympics in terms of overall global significance. A strong argument can be made that they are the two biggest sporting events on the planet.

But Vancouver is, of course, not hosting the entire FIFA World Cup.

It is hosting a share of it. A not insignificant share, certainly. But still a share.

There are 16 host cities spread across three countries. The opening match is not here. Canada’s opening ceremony is not here. The quarter-finals, semi-finals, and championship final are not here. The tournament’s biggest moments will be distributed across North America.

Perhaps the clearest illustration of this came during the negotiations over Canada’s match allocation. Last year, during the one-year countdown to the tournament, Vancouver resident and FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani — one of the city’s strongest advocates within world soccer — revealed that local officials were consulted with two options.

Vancouver could either receive seven matches, including two knockout matches, or six matches accompanied by Canada’s opening match and opening ceremony.

BC Place Stadium could not have all three: the larger match allocation, the additional knockout-round match, and Canada’s opening ceremony.

The trade-off itself revealed an important reality: Canada’s role in the tournament was always going to be shared equitably, with national politics being a driving factor, rather than a greater emphasis on merit based on the calibre of the stadium venues in each host city. Toronto Stadium (BMO Field) is arguably the only outlier among the 16 venues, with the smallest capacity (it now has 43,046 seats in its tournament mode, accomplished by adding grandstands with nearly 18,000 temporary seats) and the only stadium that is not a typical FIFA World Cup-calibre venue.

That reality is also reflected in the match distribution. Vancouver secured seven matches, while Toronto received six, including one round of 32 knockout match.

Toronto Stadium also secured the distinction of hosting the first FIFA World Cup match on Canadian soil on Friday, June 12. That match comes with the honour of staging Canada’s opening ceremony spectacle. Each of the three host nations will hold its own opening ceremony within the tournament’s first two days, with Mexico launching the competition in Mexico City on Thursday, June 11 and the U.S. holding its opening ceremony in Los Angeles later on June 12 after the Canadian opener.

The same dynamic can be seen in the investments being made by tournament sponsors and partners. Some major corporate sponsor activations are heading to Vancouver, while others are going elsewhere. Adidas, for example, is bringing its “Home of Soccer” activation to Toronto — not to Vancouver.

That stands in stark contrast to both the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In 2015, Toronto was not even part of the equation. The city opted out of hosting FIFA Women’s World Cup matches as it had to focus on staging the Pan American Games that same summer.

And during the 2010 Olympics, Vancouver was not sharing the spotlight with another Canadian city. Vancouver was the spotlight.

Vancouver’s name was literally embedded into every aspect of the Olympics. For more than two weeks, Vancouver sat at the centre of the global sporting universe.

During the Olympics, nearly every major storyline, iconic image, and defining moment pointed back to Vancouver and its surrounding region. During the FIFA World Cup, those moments will be spread across 16 cities in three countries.

The scale was different as well.

The Olympics involved numerous sporting disciplines, a dozen competition and ceremonies venues spread across Vancouver, Richmond, Cypress Mountain, and Whistler, and an enormous logistical operation that transformed large parts of the region.

There is another important distinction between Expo ’86 and the 2010 Olympics and the 2026 FIFA World Cup that often gets overlooked: city-building.

The World’s Fair and the Olympics were not simply major events. They were also a massive construction and infrastructure undertaking, reshaping cities physically.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup operates under a very different hosting philosophy compared to past tournaments.

Rather than encouraging host cities to build new facilities, from the outset of the 2026 tri-nation united bid by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, the approach emphasizes using existing facilities and infrastructure wherever possible. No new stadiums were built, as the strategy maximizes what is already in place in each host city.

BC Place Stadium received some upgrades and modifications to meet tournament requirements. No major transportation megaprojects are being fast-tracked for the event. The city that visitors will experience during the tournament is essentially the same city before Vancouver was first named as a host city — albeit one that has been heavily decorated, activated, and programmed for the tournament.

Some have balked at the latest estimates placing the combined total municipal, provincial, and federal cost of hosting the tournament in Vancouver at between $685 million and $729 million, including approximately $242 million for security and public safety and roughly $181 million for BC Place Stadium’s upgrades and tournament operations.

That is undeniably a significant amount of money, with roughly $250 million set to be raised through a temporary FIFA World Cup hotel sales tax on overnight bookings at Vancouver hotels from 2023 to 2030 — covering the majority of the City of Vancouver’s portion of the tournament’s costs.

But in the context of major international sporting events, the total cost remains relatively modest.

Previous FIFA World Cup host nations have often embarked on massive construction programs involving brand-new stadiums, expanded airports, new highways, transit projects, and large-scale accommodation developments. The tournaments of 2010 South Africa, 2014 Brazil, 2018 Russia, and 2022 Qatar all involved very substantial infrastructure investments exponentially beyond what is occurring in Vancouver.

The contrast becomes even clearer when looking ahead.

Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, which will jointly host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, are undertaking major infrastructure projects connected to the tournament. Morocco alone is building new stadiums and significantly expanding its high-speed rail network to better connect host cities.

Saudi Arabia’s plans for the 2034 FIFA World Cup are on an entirely different scale, with estimates reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars as the country builds new stadiums, transportation infrastructure, and entire urban districts tied to the event.

By comparison, Vancouver’s FIFA World Cup preparations are much less about construction and more about presentation.

The city is not being rebuilt for the tournament. It is being showcased as it is.

Then there was the national pride factor of Vancouver 2010. People sometimes forget just how powerful that was. The red mittens. The sea of Canadian flags. Canada’s first Olympic gold medal won on home soil, after the droughts of Montreal 1976 and Calgary 1988. Sidney Crosby’s “Golden Goal.” Canada’s historic medal finish of 26 medals with 14 golds.

The country collectively came together in a way that does not happen often.

That is not a criticism of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as this edition of the tournament was designed to be shared between the three countries. Even without the geopolitical and economic tensions between the three countries since early 2025, this event is a completely different beast. It is simply recognizing that the Vancouver Olympics evolved into something much larger than a sporting event. It became a defining Canadian moment.

The FIFA World Cup experience will be different and that is perfectly okay. Not every success needs to become the biggest success.

The more appropriate comparison is that this will likely be the most significant event Vancouver has hosted since the 2010 Winter Olympics. No, it will not be another Vancouver 2010. But if it can capture even a meaningful fraction of the energy, civic pride, and global attention that the Olympics brought to the city more than 16 years ago, it will rank among Vancouver’s great modern event successes. That alone is an extraordinary achievement.

Vancouver’s municipal government, Destination Vancouver, and the Government of British Columbia have embraced that opportunity. Together, they have invested heavily in creating an atmosphere worthy of the occasion.

“Building on the legacy of previous sporting events, we’re the only city globally that’s ever hosted a World’s Fair, an Olympic and Paralympic Games, a Women’s World Cup, the Invictus Games, and now the Men’s World Cup,” said Jessie Adcock, the lead and chief delivery officer for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Vancouver Host Committee, during today’s press conference that provided media with a preview of the fan festival.

“This could be the only time that the Men’s World Cup comes in our lifetimes. And so, one of the things that the team and I set out to do was create a memorable experience. We wanted to make sure that if this was only going to happen once in our lifetime, in our beautiful city, that we did it the best way.”

If all three levels of government are already spending hundreds of millions of dollars to host the tournament, spending relatively a little more — while also encouraging the local business community to do the same — to ensure Vancouver stands out among the 16 host cities may be one of the highest-return investments available.

That also goes for the provincial government’s hosting of the B.C. Business House at Vancouver Convention Centre during the FIFA World Cup, which is intended to welcome business leaders visiting from around the world and help attract foreign investment in the province’s key economic sectors.

“B.C. Business House is about turning the excitement of the FIFA World Cup 2026 into lasting economic benefits, new opportunities for local businesses and good jobs for British Columbians,” said Ravi Kahlon, B.C. minister of jobs and economic growth, in a statement today.

“By bringing together leaders from key sectors and showcasing the creativity, talent and innovation our province has to offer, we’re building new partnerships and new investment that will benefit our communities for years to come.”

In an expanded FIFA World Cup format where visitors from around the globe can choose between more host cities than ever before, being memorable is what ultimately determines which cities capture the greatest long-term tourism and economic benefits, both during and long after the tournament.

And I suspect visitors over the next few weeks will be pleasantly surprised by just how much of the city has been transformed and activated for the tournament.

Ultimately, that should be a key measure of success.

Not whether the FIFA World Cup surpasses the 2010 Winter Olympics or Expo ’86 in Vancouver’s history, but whether the city delivers an unforgettable experience for residents, visitors, and the millions watching around the world.

I know people who left Vancouver during the Olympics to avoid the crowds and traffic. In hindsight, they later told me they regretted it, knowing that they missed a once-in-a-generation moment in the life of the city. The FIFA World Cup will be different, but I suspect some people who are dismissing it today may eventually reach a similar conclusion.

Over these next five weeks, if Vancouver fills its streets with energy, leaves visitors with lasting memories, and showcases itself at its very best, it will have achieved exactly what a host city should hope to achieve.

That is a high bar. It is also a realistic one.

And based on what we have seen so far, Vancouver appears well positioned to clear it.

The city does not need to be the centre of the sporting universe to succeed. It simply needs to make the most of its moment in the spotlight — and give the world a reason to remember it.

“We Are Vancouver.” “A Force of Nature.” The world is now watching.

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