Park users push back as Vancouver edges Killarney, Memorial South Park FIFA plans forward

It was a tense evening at a Vancouver Park Board meeting on Monday, as commissioners voted to advance plans to build FIFA training facilities at Killarney Park and Memorial South Park, at a combined cost of $25-million.

Specifically, they signed off on allowing staff to negotiate contracts to build the two facilities.

Vancouver is contractually obligated to provide two training facilities for the FIFA World Cup 2026 – but those who use the park question why the relatively small Memorial South Park has been selected – and question why there has been so little information about the idea until recently.

“It was virtually impossible to find out [about this plan],” Memorial South Park user Cindy Heinrichs told reporters after addressing the park board. “Even today, I met people at the park who don’t know that this is happening.”

Between construction and use during the tournament, the parks will largely be unavailable to the public for 20 months if the plans go ahead.

In the case of Memorial South Park, there is specific concern about what it will mean for school-aged runners, with its rubberized track a rarity locally.

“In my view, it is undemocratic, it has been laid upon us without any consultation and no alternatives have been provided,” Ian Coccimiglio, a high school track coach told CTV News on Monday, after outlining the situation to park board commissioners.

Despite voting in favour of allowing staff to negotiate construction contracts at Monday evening’s meeting, a number of park board commissioners were still clearly uncomfortable with aspects of the plan.

“The community in Memorial South really came out tonight and they were passionately opposed to the use of their small neighbourhood field, and it would be really unfortunate to lose that for 20 months,” acknowledged Green Party commissioner Tom Digby in an interview with CTV News following the vote.

The use of Memorial South Park is ultimately not a done deal – the City of Vancouver is in talks to potentially use the facilities at UBC which are used by the Whitecaps and the national team.

But if the sides can’t come to an agreement – the park board will go with Memorial South Park due to contractual obligations with FIFA to provide those training facilities.

“Legally we were bound to do that tonight, which was a real problem – but we think they haven’t pressed enough, and we’re optimistic that FIFA may be able to bend its rules enough that we could use the UBC site,” Digby said.

Given the level of expense involved, city council will also have to sign off on this plan.