Science World in Vancouver is wrapped as a soccer ball on Sunday ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
Nobody wants to be a party pooper. Especially those of us in Vancouver, which has, at times, been dubbed No Fun City. We like fun! And we like a party! And many of us like soccer – witness the campaign to keep the Whitecaps here (please, somebody with local ties, buy this MLS team; Ryan Reynolds, are you reading this?).
What we don’t like is hosting an extravaganza – and everything that comes with that, such as the expense and the inconvenience – that we are excluded from.
It’s like your parents throwing a big party, for which you are ordered to clean the house and stay out of certain rooms lest you track dirt inside; meanwhile, your allowance is getting cut because food is expensive and there are many guests to feed. But you, child, are not invited to the actual party. You will be relegated to watching from a remote location (at the top of the stairs, through the balustrade).
The World Cup is costing Canadian taxpayers more than a billion dollars, according to a recent analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Even if B.C.’s Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport disputes this, it’s fair to say the price tag to host these games is astronomical.
As are the ticket prices. And this particularly irks. Canadians are hosting and paying for an event most of us can’t afford to attend.
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When I logged on to the FIFA site Wednesday morning to once again try to score tickets to a Vancouver game – any game! – the lowest price I could find was $530 per ticket (New Zealand vs Egypt). A relative bargain compared to other games – but still more than $2,100 for a family of four. Even pre-paid parking costs $75! (Take transit.)
As for the economic benefits we’ve been promised, those are dubious too, as a recent Globe and Mail editorial laid out.
When Vancouver hosted the Olympics in 2010, the city (and Whistler) really did shine in coverage that was broadcast around the world. For locals, tickets to many events were much more accessible – both in terms of cost and availability. Even for doubters (like this writer) who didn’t attend a single game, that time felt magical.
For the World Cup, with Vancouver and Toronto sharing hosting duties with 14 other cities, we won’t sparkle internationally in quite the same way.
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Meanwhile, Vancouver’s usual local fun summer stuff is being negatively affected, including the dragon boat festival, the Italian Day festival and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
As the Vancouver Folk Music Festival told the Vancouver Sun: “Vancouver arts organizations feel totally sidelined by FIFA. This one-time mega event seems to have utter obliviousness and no interest in working with long-standing community and cultural events.”
Roads are closing, hotel prices have shot up, and tourists appear to be avoiding the city, with June hotel bookings down from last year.
Beautiful Game? More like a massive, costly hassle.
But.
I was venting about this to some children in my life this week and was fascinated by their response.
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My son, 17 and a (ticketless) soccer fan, listened to me grumble, then said: “Have you seen Science World?” The Telus World of Science is transforming its geodesic dome into a giant FIFA soccer ball. “It looks really cool.”
When a 17-year-old says something, anything, is cool, you pay attention.
Meanwhile, the also-ticketless kids next door told me how excited they are for the World Cup. They seemed particularly jazzed about the watch parties.
The big one is the FIFA Fan Festival at the Pacific National Exhibition – which is free, unless you want reserved seats. There is a totally free watch party at Granville Island, with seating for 1,000 people, and no VIP section. And a whole bunch of other soccer-themed stuff is planned for the city. If the 2010 experience is any indication, the party atmosphere will spill out into the streets, in a good way.
The sports gambling website The Action Network recently ranked all host cities for fan experience; Vancouver and Toronto were numbers one and two. “For travelling fans,” an unnamed expert spokesperson states, “the game itself is only 90 minutes, but everything around it can define the entire trip.”
For those of us not travelling – and sans tickets – maybe we can define this extravaganza beyond the 90-minute games. The World Cup is coming. It’s costing us mightily. Most of us will not be able to watch in person from BC Place or BMO Field – oops, Toronto Stadium.
But we are stuck with this party. So let’s try to find a way to enjoy it.