FLETCHER: FIFA World Cup fever hits BC and Canada right in the deficit

VICTORIA — This week, I took a tour of Vancouver’s transit system on the eve of the World Cup preliminary round matches at an expensively revamped BC Place stadium.The signs were everywhere, literally in the case of huge FIFA banners lining the SkyTrain escalators that had suddenly been repaired after the breakdowns of previous weeks. The geodesic dome of Science World is covered with stickers to mimic the official FIFA ball for the tournament.Speaking of balls, BC Premier David Eby has been promoting the World Cup for a while. His Asia trade mission last June earned him the Provincial Government Waste Award from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation this week, for the “wood leather” soccer balls he ordered to show off at Osaka Expo.Three prototype balls for the trip cost $342,000. The Surrey company that provided the special wood veneer for the balls said not only did they receive no credit for their innovation, but they were looking at layoffs because their lumber supplier had run out of timber harvest rights for the year.With the province’s overall costs now estimated at a maximum of $729 million, more than $100 million per match, Eby’s promotional efforts continued. With the mandatory grass installed to temporarily replace the field turf used by the Whitecaps and BC Lions, Eby and his ministers posted a video to boast that the fresh turf was sourced from a farm in Abbotsford. BuyBC! LookWest!.The temporary field, airport-style security, VIP lounges, and other renovations cost BC Place just under $200 million.BC’s hotel tax has been increased by 2.5% for the Vancouver region in an effort to squeeze more Canadian pesos out of World Cup fans and future tourists as well. The tax increase is currently scheduled to remain in effect until 2030, and the province projects this to be its largest revenue source, taking in $250 to $260 million over five years.Until this week, hotel bookings were down compared to last year at this time, with more people opting out of 2026 Vancouver tourism than adding to the total for the World Cup. Ravi Kahlon, the jobs minister who has already been anointed as the next BC NDP leader, now says hotel bookings are looking to break even despite the jacked-up prices. We’ll see.I’ll spare you the lofty projected figures for gross domestic product growth, a favourite of politicians. Just a reminder, if Vancouver suffers an earthquake the week after the World Cup, the next five years of reconstruction would add enormously to the GDP.A study of previous World Cup and Olympic events finds that they are generally profitable for FIFA and the similarly corruption-tainted International Olympic Committee. For events going back to the 1976 Montreal Summer Games, “the average return-on-investment for an event was negative [-38%],” the study concludes..It should be noted that among the few Olympics to post a surplus was the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, which also left behind key infrastructure, such as the SkyTrain to the airport and an upgrade of the Sea-to-Sky Highway.FIFA leaves turf, stickers, and banners that have to be removed, and businesses are recovering from closures and penalties for unauthorized World Cup promotions. FIFA takes all the ticket, broadcast, and sponsorship money.FIFA has further inflated the World Cup 2026 by expanding the teams to 48 countries, adding more gripping opening-round matches like Team Canada’s opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto. Tickets were still available for this and all other Canadian matches as of mid-week, with nosebleeds for Bosnia going for just over $1,000 each at BMO Field, a name and logo banned for the duration of the World Cup.No tears are shed for BMO, but for US matches, NFL stadiums have been stripped of their beloved team colours, replaced with Euro-pastel FIFA signs. Of course, the serious matches of this tournament, once the padded preliminaries are out of the way, will mostly be in New York, Los Angeles, and Mexico City.Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.tomfletcherbc@gmail.comX: @tomfletcherbc

FLETCHER: FIFA World Cup fever hits BC and Canada right in the deficit

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