Vancouver's Science World has been transformed into a soccer ball for the World Cup.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
The B.C. government says it could cost the province and the City of Vancouver up to $114-million to play host to Vancouver’s seven World Cup games once revenues and federal funding are accounted for.
In its latest fiscal update Friday, two weeks before the start of the tournament in Canada, the United States and Mexico, the province said it now expects the total cost of holding the Vancouver games to be in the range of $685-million and $729-million.
And, for the first time, the province also revealed the price tag for policing the World Cup events: Sport and Tourism Minister Anne Kang said it will cost an estimated $242-million.
The estimated cost for the games in Vancouver has swelled from roughly $240-million in 2022 to $624-million a year ago, shared between all three levels of government.
Asked about the ballooning price of the games, Ms. Kang said the World Cup will bring lasting benefits of more tourism to the region, including adding a billion extra dollars to B.C.’s gross domestic product over the next few years.
“For the next five years, we expect approximately 1 million additional out-of-province visitors,” she said.
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Ms. Kang and Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth Ravi Kahlon, who appeared beside her at the news conference, both said the largest source of revenue offsetting all these costs is the short-term accommodation tax that began in 2023 and will be in place until 2030 for all visitors staying at hotels, bed and breakfasts and short-term residential rentals.
That 2.5-per-cent tax has already brought in $105.7-million in its first three years, they said, and is expected to bring in a total of at least $250-million over its lifespan.
The province has already recouped 80 per cent of the cost of creating a FIFA fan zone at Vancouver’s Pacific National Exhibition fairgrounds, Ms. Kang said, and food and drink sales should help recover more of those costs.
Ms. Kang said the province and city weren’t able to provide details on security – the largest single cost – until now because officials needed to see which countries would be facing off against each other to tailor the plans to police each game.
Ottawa recently stepped up, she said, to provide $100-million in funding toward security, which will be led by Vancouver’s municipal police in partnership with the RCMP and Canadian border agents.
Earlier this month, Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer issued a report estimating that public funding from all levels of government to support the World Cup events in Vancouver and Toronto will exceed $1-billion. The report says the federal contribution announced to date is $473-million, while the remaining $593-million will come from other levels of government, for a total of $1.06-billion.
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A recent Globe and Mail analysis of Toronto and Vancouver’s host-city agreements with FIFA explained how the Switzerland-based soccer federation harvests most of the revenue while governments assume most of the cost and practical risk.
These host-city agreements protect FIFA’s centralized revenue model, with broadcasting rights, sponsorships and most income from hospitality packages flowing to Zurich. For the 2026 men’s World Cup, projected revenues run above $13-billion, although numbers for Canada are not available because most of FIFA’s income streams are global.
As some politicians in Toronto and Vancouver have complained, host cities do not share meaningfully in this money. Instead, they pick up the tab for stadium upgrades, security operations, fan zones, transport adaptations and public‑space refurbishment.
Peter Milobar, B.C. Conservative MLA for Kamloops-Centre and the opposition finance critic, said it is wrong that Friday’s FIFA fiscal update came the day after the legislature retired for the summer.
“If the government was truly secure in their numbers and confident that the projections were going to be hit, that there was truly the economic benefit that they thought there was going to be, that FIFA would be paying their fair share of taxation and things like that, we would have had these numbers two days ago while the House was still in session,” Mr. Milobar said Friday afternoon in a phone interview.
He said he expects the post-tournament costs to eclipse the high end of the latest estimated price tag, noting this figure was 30 per cent higher on Friday than the tally issued by B.C. and the city a year ago.