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VANCOUVER — The production director for Vancouver’s FIFA Fan Festival says he heard the “complaining and grumbling” from “naysayers” heading into the World Cup.
But Paul Runnals says once an event like the tournament gets underway, “everybody forgets all that,” pointing to tens of thousands of ecstatic fans who attended the festival in East Vancouver last Thursday to watch Canada defeat Qatar 6-0.
The buildup to the World Cup in Vancouver was dominated by talk of hotel vacancies, whether the hosting cost of up to $729 million represented value for money, and if the fan festival might flop.
But it’s almost two weeks into the tournament and downtown bars and patios have been packed, transit ridership has soared and police have reported relatively few game-day arrests, despite the downtown core heaving with revellers.
The jury may still be out about whether the city is getting good value, but Mayor Ken Sim says Vancouver “couldn’t have asked for a better branding exercise.”
Runnals says the fan festival team has been working on the event since January 2025 and it’s been rewarding to see the “overwhelmingly positive” feedback.
“I don’t think they knew what they were coming to, and so that’s been very, very rewarding for those of us who’ve been pulling hundred-hour work weeks for a long time to get it to that place.”
He said a big draw for the Vancouver festival is the live music lineup that is running throughout the tournament, which he said turns into a “full day of fun and entertainment.”
“I mean certainly any time Canada is playing is an absolute blowout.”
He said Brazil, Mexico and Canada games have had the largest attendance, so he is expecting a huge swell on Wednesday, when those three countries play back-to-back-to-back.
The same energy is reflected in the downtown core, where three matches have been played before sellout crowds at BC Place. Wednesday’s Canada-Switzerland match, which kicks off at noon, will be the second at the stadium for the national team, and if they win or draw, they’ll be back for at least one knockout match on July 2 and maybe another on July 7.
Despite huge crowds on the streets before and after matches, Vancouver police have reported a total of fewer than two dozen arrests over the three game days, including 10 in the Granville Street entertainment district on Sunday, when New Zealand played Egypt.
Sgt. Adam Donaldson of the Vancouver Police Department confirms very few arrests on game days, fewer than on a typical Saturday evening.
“There are a lot more people out on Granville Street but we’re getting a lot of feedback from people that are down there that it’s still a pretty friendly atmosphere and very positive atmosphere despite the large crowds,” he said.
“Maybe people would expect more problems, but we are just not seeing as many problems as we would see … on a normal Saturday night.”
Transit authority TransLink said in a statement on Tuesday that ridership across Metro Vancouver rose about 8 per cent in the first full week of the tournament, including a spike of nearly 14 per cent on game days.
It earlier said ridership on its system last Thursday was the highest since early 2020, with more than 1.36 million boardings, an 18 per cent increase compared with a typical Thursday.
Runnals noted that up to four games a day are being played in the tournament’s group stage, but that will taper as the tournament enters the knockout rounds.
“So, there’ll be some ebb and flow in kind of the overall numbers of people coming, but I think enough people have been there now, and experienced it and had a great experience that they’re telling their friends and they’re making plans to come back for the next set of games.”
The success of the hosting exercise in Vancouver so far hasn’t been hurt by a run of warm, sunny weather since the start of the tournament, in contrast to Toronto, where stormy weather has forced cancellations and delays of official fan festival events.
Sim said in an interview that people from all over the world “are getting reminded of how beautiful and amazing Vancouver is, or they’re being introduced to it for the first time.”
Analytics provided by U.S. hotel data firm CoStar in the week before the start of the World Cup had shown that bookings during the tournament were sharply down compared with the same dates last year. Some non-hospitality businesses also said they were closing during the tournament.
When asked about criticisms that swirled before the games started, Sim said people seem to be more focused on soccer now.
He said the city has been in similar situations before, during Expo 86 and the 2010 Olympics.
“We repeated the pattern again. There were a lot a naysayers, and I can tell you, even the naysayers are having just an incredible time and they’re really proud of their city and what we’ve accomplished.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2026.
Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press
