Killarney Park and Memorial South Park will be upgraded to FIFA training ground standards
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Vancouver park board will be asked to approve contacts to prepare two training sites for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
According to a staff recommendation going to park board next Monday, the board will be asked to sign a $16.25 million contract to upgrade Killarney Park and an $8.75 million contract to upgrade Memorial South Park.
The contracts will be with Canadian Turner Construction. Killarney Park and Memorial South Park are both located in southeast Vancouver.
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According to the report, city and park board staff assessed “proximity to downtown Vancouver, lack of sightlines onto the pitch, the capacity to accommodate the necessary fields and facilities, equity initiative zones, neighbourhood and programming impacts and nearby transit options” before settling on those two parks.
“The field of play is on a critical path for delivery where preparations must be made for the installation of specialized grass sod in September 2025 in order to establish the grassroots during the fall growing season and manage it to ensure compliance with (FIFA) specifications,” the report read.
“Time is of the essence to award this contract to meet this schedule, and the upcoming construction period represents the minimum time needed to construct the works. Should this contract award be delayed, the construction is at extreme risk of not being completed by Dec. 31, 2025, when FIFA has specified handover. Not awarding this contract would put the parks board at risk of being in breach of training site delivery agreements.”
The public cost for B.C. hosting part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup could exceed half a billion dollars — more than double the early estimates released two years ago. Vancouver will host seven matches.
In 2022, when Vancouver was named one of 16 host cities in North America, the B.C. government said the estimated costs for planning, staging and hosting five 2026 World Cup matches would be $240 million to $260 million. The updated estimate released in May is between $483 million and $581 million to host seven matches.
The park board report states that most of the $25 million park upgrade costs will come from municipal and regional district taxes and will not impact the board’s capital or operating budgets.
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