The author reflects on their positive feelings toward the World Cup, seeing it as an opportunity to embrace personal diversity and share this experience with their children.
Romelu Lukaku, a forward for Belgium’s soccer team, trains on the grounds of the Royal Belgian Football Association ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 4, 2026.
Photo copyright Jan De Meuleneir.
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It’s a chance to engage with my own multiplicity, and show my kids the same.
Harrison Mooney 12 Jun 2026 The Tyee
Harrison Mooney is an associate editor at The Tyee. He is an award-winning author and journalist from Abbotsford, B.C., who recently won the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for his memoir, Invisible Boy .
I let my children stay home from school today for Canada’s first World Cup match. The school year’s almost over, and as far as I’m concerned, they’ll learn more watching soccer than watching their teachers pretend to like all their classmates. For instance, they’ll learn there’s a country called Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The mountainous republics of the Balkans haven’t mattered much to them yet, but I know my kids, and one of them is guaranteed to ask me why Canada has to play two nations at the same time.
“Some places, like people,” I’ll probably tell them, “are more than one thing.”
We won’t be attending in person, though. It’s in Toronto. The first Vancouver game is at BC Place tomorrow night, June 13, between Australia and Turkey, part of Canada’s second and third group stage matches. We won’t be attending those either, of course, as we don’t have an extra $8,000 lying around. But I did splurge on two months of TSN+.
It’s the World Cup. You’ve gotta go big or go home, and in my case, I say: why not both? It’s hard to feel bad about spending $50 on a streaming service to watch north of 100 World Cup games when the federal government plans to spend upwards of $1 billion to simply host seven.
The justification for welcoming FIFA with open arms, holding a bundle of taxpayer money, is how it stands to benefit the national economy. I’m finding it hard to believe we break even.
An infusion of global cash sure would be nice — nicer still if it would make my family’s life more affordable, or even this city more accessible to those who don’t have a lot of disposable income.
Instead, it’s clearly trending toward the opposite. The FIFA World Cup begins in Vancouver on Saturday, but not the Vancouver I live in. Traces of the other Vancouver are everywhere already. There’s old money floating around. Just the other day, I found a 20-euro note in the gutter behind the Canadian Tire.
That said, most of the money that’s floating around appears to be going to an “ inherently corrupt ” administration and exorbitant policing, so I suppose the two Vancouvers aren’t that different.
The $700 million cost projection for hosting part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Vancouver includes an estimated $242 million for safety and security. This is compared to roughly $58.5 million for the Toronto Police Service , part of an estimated $87 million in safety and security costs for Toronto overall.
We might explore the FIFA Fan Festival in East Van’s Hastings Park. It’s supposedly free. But not really . As with everything else, “the poors” get a pittance, and those who are willing or able to pay can secure themselves a premium experience.
So rather than camp out for four of the 2,600 free seats in the newly built, $183 million amphitheatre , my family and most of our family friends will be watching the matches at our house or theirs, the same way we would if the tournament was taking place on one of the other six continents.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not beyond excited.
A chance to envision ourselves in new ways
The World Cup arrives at a wonderful time for my family. We’ve never been more into soccer. My partner and I have been coaching our kids’ teams for two years, and as of this writing, my children are the reigning champions of their Micro Footie league in East Van. (This Saturday morning, new champs will emerge, as both my kids up and quit on their teams when the rain started falling last weekend.)
Vancouver’s been having a wonderful run with its soccer teams. The Vancouver Rise FC are the reigning Northern Super League champions. Their games are affordable and welcoming as hell. My family was even invited to unfurl the flag for the inaugural home opener at Swangard Stadium last year.
The Vancouver Whitecaps FC had a great season last year as well, and they’re looking even more formidable this year. Forget the Vancouver Canucks for the moment. Soccer is this city’s favourite sport at the moment. The World Cup arrives at a perfect time for our identity as Vancouverites.
But doesn’t it always? What excites me the most about the World Cup is that it’s international. It’s not the NHL or NBA. It’s not about your city, really, even when it’s being held downtown. It’s something bigger, and it challenges fans to envision ourselves in new ways, with new identities we rarely explore otherwise.
On one level, my children and I are Canadians. We’ll cheer for Canada, in one of the few instan…
Read the full article at The Tyee →The author reflects on their positive feelings toward the World Cup, seeing it as an opportunity to embrace personal diversity and share this experience with their children.
Bias read (Center): The article does not address any politically charged topics. It focuses on personal reflection regarding the World Cup as a cultural and familial experience, without taking a stance on political issues.