At the start of a longish process, Vancouver is in the game to be one of the host cities in the United 2026 FIFA World Cup bid.
“The host cities that are selected from the list announced today will define the United Bid,” commented Peter Montopoli, Canada Soccer General Secretary and Canada Bid Director for the United Bid. “We are pleased that six Canadian cities have completed the Request for Information and we look forward to working closely with these potential host cities in the next steps of preparing a world class bid to secure the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the United Bid of Canada, Mexico and the United States.” . . .
The 2026 FIFA World Cup™ will be the first tournament with the expanded 48-team format and will require world-class facilities and infrastructure. Canada, Mexico and the United States are uniquely suited to accommodate FIFA’s high-level standards for hosting a FIFA World Cup™.
More on United 2026 HERE.
All of the stadiums being considered in Canada have issues that need to be resolved, such as capacity or requirement for a grass field. The later is the issue that needs to be resolved for Vancouver, but that should be a relatively easy requirement to meet. Other than that, Vancouver is an ideal city, having previous Women’s World Cup, World Cup qualifying and major event experience as well as good support for football (aka soccer).
I’m not up on soccer, or big sports in general. But after seeing two major sporting event riots and a mostly successful Olympics where the city’s population doubled and billions had to be spent to ensure that success, will this event be somewhere between these extremes? Will it be worth it in the end to society outside of sports bars and hotels? Can the hosting funds be secured without incurring public debt or forcing Vancouver to assume the majority of policing, emergency and crowd management services as it always has? Are there better ways to spend the hundreds of millions needed to host another world-wide sports competition?
Just asking.
..unless corrupt officials at FIFA once again scupper the US bid like they did in 2010 for 2022 WC.
Of course it is very interesting if the world cup can be in Canada. After the United States in 1994.