In the shadow of the BC Place, downtown Vancouver braces for World Cup

VANCOUVER — The 30 students attending the Columbia Academy private elementary school in Vancouver often spend their recess in the courtyard of BC Place Stadium, which essentially serves as the school’s backyard.

But this week a three-metre-high metal fence went up, caging the courtyard and its famous statues of Terry Fox ahead of seven World Cup games at the stadium.

It’s one of the most visible signs of security preparations in downtown Vancouver ahead of the tournament, but there will be more than just fences to contend with.

Those who work, play and learn in the area surrounding the stadium have spent months planning for the web of road closures on game days, with a stretch of busy Pacific Boulevard alongside the stadium already shut down to traffic.

Some have chosen to close their doors, while others plan to move — or buckle down for the wave of soccer fans when they descend on the city.

Columbia Academy elementary school principal Brittany Conlon said the closure of Beatty Street means students will relocate to the academy’s high school location, a 15-minute walk away, on match days.

She said she’s been thinking about what the games will mean for her school since September and met organizers in February to go over details.

She said they’re lucky to have the option to move to a different campus, noting that about 60 per cent of their students’ families live downtown.

“But then a lot of other families are driving in from Richmond, Burnaby, East Vancouver, and they would want to completely avoid this area.”

Tens of thousands of soccer fans are expected to attend World Cup games in Vancouver and local organizers have released maps of the roads around BC Place showing which will be open to local traffic only and which will be closed completely.

Terry Fox Plaza outside BC Place is scheduled to remain cordoned off throughout the tournament, and while the last Vancouver match is scheduled for July 7, FIFA has rented the stadium for another week after that.

Conlon said while the plaza is closed, students will be able to walk to downtown parks for recess and gym classes.

She said they’re used to the area around the stadium being active.

“We have the BC Lions games here, and they usually have their parties on Friday afternoon. So, our students are used to a lot of activity there,” she said.

“When there are big concerts, (or) they observe Whitecaps games that will have parties here after school. And so, I don’t think that most of our kids really understand the magnitude of FIFA.”

Next to the school, Aquariums West will be closed on game days and co-owner Kreig Leblanc said losing out on seven days’ worth of customers could mean a significant hit to the small business.

Leblanc said they starting polling customers in December about whether they would come to the store on game days.

“We were asking our customers if any of them would really make the effort to try to navigate the street closures and the transit changes, and pretty much unanimously, our customers said no, they were not interested in coming to the shop on game days,” he said.

The store has been selling fish and aquarium supplies at the location next to Terry Fox Plaza for 16 years, and Leblanc said customers still shop on regular CFL and Major League Soccer game days. But he said large events with increased restrictions — such as 2024’s Taylor Swift concerts — are different.

“(With Taylor Swift) we had a whole weekend, basically, that was just a writeoff, because people just didn’t come. So, FIFA is sort of an exaggerated version of that,” he said.

“Unfortunately, for a small business for us, seven days of lost revenue is a huge hit.”

Leblanc said he reached out to the city looking for possible support to recoup losses through things like rent reduction or help for staff, but the idea was shut down.

“It’s going to be great for hotels and restaurants and things like that. Unfortunately, we’re sort of the odd man out. Our patrons, they’re here for a different reason. They’re not really here for sports.”

When asked about the fencing, B.C. Minister of Sport Anne Kang said FIFA Canada had paid to rent BC Place from May 14 to July 14.

“They have exclusive access, and so that means they have the right to say how they would like to use the property that they have rented,” she said.

Murray Saunders, the general manager of the Shark Club sports bar, around the corner from BC Place, is predicting the World Cup could attract 10 times the number of people as the 2010 Olympics.

“We’re going to be one of the busiest spots. We have about 400 seats here and there will be a lot of people coming,” he said.

Saunders said that while Beatty Street will be closed to vehicle traffic on game days, there are alternative routes to the bar and he has met with delivery services over the last several months to make sure they know how to get there and keep it stocked.

“Our food delivery service, our garbage pickup, and obviously alcohol and beer deliveries, (that’s) where we’re definitely concerned,” he said.

“We’re just making sure that they know that we will, if we have to, be out there making sure that there is access.”

Saunders said he’s not worried about the required walk discouraging patrons from coming to the bar, adding that he thinks most people will use transit to try and avoid the traffic.

“There’s going to be people travelling here from all over the world, and I think they’re going to come here no matter what. I do believe that a lot of people from Vancouver will avoid the downtown area, so that should help,” he said.

He said he’s hoping “somewhat business as usual, other than just mobs and mobs of people down here.”

While Columbia Academy is moving classes, not all students in the area have that option.

Crosstown Elementary School, with about 500 students, is a few blocks from BC Place and will be surrounded by closed roads on game days.

A statement from the Vancouver School Board said it sent information to parents in April and has “strongly recommended the school community avoid driving to Crosstown during the event period unless required for accessibility-related reasons.”

The school board said safety measures that include temporary fences and the routing of pedestrians around, rather than through, the school area whenever possible have been put in place during the tournament.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2026

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press