Vancouver World Cup planning in ‘zone of unknowns’ awaiting FIFA details

The hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to be spent on the FIFA World Cup despite the ongoing trade war, and costs are still set to balloon.

The head organizer of the 2026 World Cup soccer games in Vancouver revealed not only is FIFA in the driver’s seat, key information from the soccer federation before the host cities can finalize plans.

Next year’s tournament is taking place across 16 cities in Canada, the US and Mexico, with timelines and expectations for each host city taking place in lockstep.

“It’s very much a centrally co-ordinated event and so typically what happens is that FIFA has milestones around planning and then the 16 cities, we present our information in an organized way,” said Vancouver Host Committee Lead, Jesse Adcock.

“Part of our challenges is that we’re still operating in a zone of unknowns as these details are still landing,” she explained. “For example, we don’t know what teams are playing here yet and that is like a pivotal piece of information, and once we know that it’s going to be like floodgates opening.”

CTV News pointed out that a year before the 2010 Olympics, British Columbians knew many details around transportation, security, hosting, and volunteer opportunities and asked whether the Vancouver Host Committee would ramp up their communications soon.

“You’re going to see a lot more of all of us,” likely starting in September, she said. “This is a big group project collaborating with partners at the province, the federal government, marketing partners like Destination BC, Destination Vancouver, our local First Nations.”

Making the most of the investment

Adcock discussed planning details a day after VANOC boss, John Furlong, gave an exclusive interview to CTV News with advice and encouragement for World Cup organizers.

He pointed out the time for naysaying is over since the seven matches are contractually obligated to take place in Vancouver, so it’s time to rally the public, organizers, and stakeholders to ensure taxpayers get value for the money invested in the event.

“It’s happening and so we have to deliver the event,” Furlong said. “That does not mean that we can be reckless, we need to look at the event and manage it hard, be tight, but create opportunity.”

He suggested that the province and city make the effort to be clear about what the lasting legacies and long-term investment, business, sporting, and tourism opportunities could be from the World Cup, rather than make vague predictions.

“I think you set out with these things with the best of intentions if what you want to do is to stage these events to achieve a greater good, like to achieve real, deep legacies as a result,” Furlong observed. “Given the way people are feeling about their jobs and the economy and tariffs and all that language that we’re hearing every day, that this is one of those events (that could be beneficial).”

The importance of vibes

In December, FIFA will conduct a draw that will determine which city will host teams from the countries that qualify, and that will allow fans to start making travel arrangements based on where their team is playing.

In the meantime, local organizers will be figuring out how to make Vancouver stand out from the other cities and put its own flavour on the games with its own vibes and character.

“The atmosphere downtown is vital to the overall success of the games, so we want to try to generate revenue and income through how the event is delivered,” said Furlong. “That is possible, the (2010) Olympics did that.”

Adcock agreed and hinted that there may be some communal World Cup opportunities outside the official FIFA Fan Zone at Hastings Park.

“The sort of state of the world we live in requires us to be very focused on keeping people safe,” she said. “But within that, we very much want to see the same magic happen that we saw during Expo, the same magic that we saw during, Taylor Swift, the Olympics.”