South Vancouver residents hand city red card over consultation for FIFA training site

A portion of a park in southeast Vancouver is slated to close for close to two years as one of two sites selected by the city for training facilities for visiting teams during the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

A grass field encircled by a track in Memorial South Park will close next month and won’t reopen until sometime in the fall of 2026.

More than ,1700 people have signed an online petition opposing the selection of this particular park because they say the track and the field are both well-used community amenities.

The city held an open house at nearby John Oliver Secondary School on Saturday.

Local resident Jeff Verbeem, who uses the track once or twice a week, went to the event, and said it was informative but he doesn’t think it qualifies as community consultation.

“It seemed to me that it was a done deal,” he told CTV News.

“So, just how this whole thing came about is, somebody around a conference table said, ‘Well, we’ll decide it and we’ll apologize later.’ That’s basically what happened here. So, it was a very undemocratic process.”

The park will receive some upgrades, including a new sod field.

But it is also slated to lose several trees and a playground adjacent to the field.

The track was well-used on Sunday afternoon by walkers and joggers, including Jaspal and Raj Randhawa.

Despite being avid walkers on the track, the couple say they are looking forward to the World Cup games in Vancouver and are happy to have the training facility in their neighbourhood.

“I think there is going to be some inconvenience. But it’s going to be closed for a good reason, not just some ridiculous reason,” Jaspal said. “We support the games and we like people coming here and staying in our city. It’ll be good for the economy of Vancouver.”

Ronan Spillane uses the park to play soccer with his children.

“I think it is a bit of a shame that the track will be closed down for 18 months, or longer,” he said. “But I am a World Cup fan myself and I think it’s very exciting that the World Cup is going to be in Vancouver.”

He hopes having the training facility in his neighbourhood might provide an opportunity for his children to meet some of the players.

“I am looking forward to coming here with the kids and maybe seeing a couple of big stars,” Spillane said. “We probably can’t watch them training, but they’ll be coming in busses, and we might get a chance to get some autographs or something.”

Killarney Park North is the other site selected as a FIFA training facility and is also slated to get some upgrades.

That location does not currently have a running track.

In April, the province estimated the “core cost” of hosting seven World Cup matches in Vancouver between $483 million and $581 million.

The City of Vancouver is currently expected to be responsible for $246 million of that.

The cost of the training facilities in city parks is expected to come from the city’s portion of Word Cup related costs.