Cost of hosting World Cup games in Vancouver more than doubles
Updated numbers predict pricetag could be higher than $580 million
The public cost for B.C. hosting part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup could exceed half a billion dollars — more than double the early estimates released two years ago.
In 2022, when Vancouver was named one of 16 host cities in North America, the B.C. government said the estimated costs for planning, staging and hosting five 2026 World Cup matches would be $240 million to $260 million. The updated estimate released Tuesday is between $483 million and $581 million to host seven matches.
Representatives of the governments of B.C. and Vancouver released the updated numbers on Tuesday.
Hosting the international soccer tournament will provide “a massive, massive opportunity” to boost Vancouver's economy and “highlight the best city on the planet,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said at the news conference on the field at B.C. Place Stadium.
“We are in a competitive situation with cities and places around the globe for tourist dollars. ... It's going to be a month-long commercial, the whole world is going to be watching Vancouver.”
Sim said he has a “gut feel” that the benefits presented in Tuesday's updates are “understated.”
“We're going to have more than a million visitors here, we're going to have more than a billion dollars in economic activity,” Sim said. “The payoff is huge.”
The World Cup will provide a major boon for a local hospitality and tourism industry that has still not fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, said B.C. Tourism Minister Lana Popham.
Asked about why hosting cost projections had increased so much over the past two years, Popham said:
“We feel very confident that what we've put forward today is accurate, and we believe taxpayers will be getting the most for that money.”
Canada's sport minister, Carla Qualtrough, was also on hand to announce the federal government's contribution of $116 million to support operational and construction costs associated with the tournament.
“FIFA 2026 will unite our country like nothing else can, bringing us together through our love of sport and healthy competition,” Qualtrough said.
The cost — what the government calls “gross core hosting costs” — breaks down like this:
■ For PavCo, the provincial Crown corporation that owns and operates B.C. Place, between $149 million and $196 million, which includes upgrades and operations during the tournament.
■ For the province of B.C., between $88 million and $109 million, which includes security, transportation, health services and emergency management.
A homegrown solution to combat bike thefts is expanding across B.C., thanks to funding from the provincial government.
Project 529, which began as a Vancouver Police Department project, will expand to allow police in all corners of B.C. to quickly and easily look up a stolen bike and find whether it is registered to an owner.
Project 529 is a free database and app that invites bike owners to register the details of their bike and their contact information, so that stolen bikes can be easily identified and reunited with owners. The database also allows buyers of second-hand bikes to look up the bike they're considering to ensure it's not stolen, while those unlucky enough to be a victim of bike theft can log on and mark their wheels as stolen.
The money will ensure police officers all over B.C. have the tools to access parts of the database — specifically personal information on a bike's owner — that it not shown to the public.
The project launched in 2015 with support from VPD Chief Const. Adam Palmer and is managed by now-retired Const. Rob Brunt.
At the time, Vancouver's bike thefts were among the worst in the country, and had been growing by 20 per cent a year.
According to Brunt, Vancouver police were receiving about nine reports a day of stolen bikes. Had that trend continued, Brunt estimates it could have been more than 6,000 bikes stolen last year, instead of the 1,049 thefts recorded in 2023.
He said that since 2015 the project has reunited around 1,250 stolen bikes with their owners — worth around $1 million.
Since the project's launch, nearly 200,000 bikes have been registered in B.C., and more than 3.1 million registered around the world. Bike thefts in the city of Vancouver alone have dropped about 70 per cent since the online database was created.
“What began as a Vancouver pilot project has now spread worldwide — and we're proud to be known as the first police force to make a meaningful impact on bike theft,” said Palmer.
The project has also caught the attention of police forces overseas, with New Zealand recently signing on to provide the country's national police force with similar on-thespot access to the database.
The database was designed by J. Allard, a former Microsoft executive whose bike had been stolen.
“We've changed the way police fight bike thefts around the world, providing a universal registration system that's accessible, searchable and shared by police forces,” said Allard. “As a result, bicycles are being returned to their owners, at times across international borders.
“With B.C. making this pioneering move, it's not only great news for cyclists throughout the province, but it's another step toward getting the rest of Canada — and the world — on board to further close the ranks around bike thieves.”