Tag: soccer

World Cup viewing parties could cost Port Moody big bucks

Port Moody is considering whether to spend up to $355,000 to host public viewing parties for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

That’s the most expensive of several options for viewing events to be presented to council at its meeting Oct. 14.

In a report, the city’s manager of cultural services, Karen Pighin, said the budget for public viewing events at Rocky Point Park that would attract up to 2,000 people to watch matches on a large outdoor screen would start at $130,000.

But that would only cover three games.

Adding a family-friendly activation zone would cost an additional $10,000, she said. Five outdoor viewing events would raise the cost to $203,000 plus another $11,000 for the activation zone.

Showing 10 matches on the outdoor screen, including the semi-final, bronze and gold medal finals, would cost $314,000, with another $13,000 to add the activation zone.

The cost for hosting the viewing events in a large tent in the park that can accommodate 250 people would range from $114,500 for three matches and no activation area to the maximum proposed budget of $355,000 for 10 matches plus the family area.

Hosting the viewing parties at the outdoor amphitheatre behind city hall, as well as the nearby parking lot and warm-up field, would cost anywhere from $800,000 to $219,000 and if the events are held in the curling rink at the recreation complex, the costs range from $35,000 to $134,000.

No sponsorships allowed

Pighin said FIFA rules won’t allow the city to recoup any of its costs for the viewing parties through sponsorships, although those rules don’t apply to the activation areas.

“A separate family fun zone may be able to have sponsorship attached where the physical location is set in another area from the viewing site,” Pighin said in her report, adding parking revenue could also help cover costs for the viewing parties or the city could chose to cancel other events like Car-Free Day and reallocate their budgets.

Pighin said the budget estimates are still preliminary as the city doesn’t know what sort of funding might be available from the provincial government, which has put out a call to communities to join the World Cup party, nor does it yet know how much will cost to license broadcasts of the matches. Technical costs could also balloon, she added, because they depend on the scale of the viewing parties and their set-up, which “may require advance technical infrastructure.”

The budget estimates also include costs for staffing, security, policing and rental of equipment such as chairs, tables, tents, waste management and portable washrooms.

Other viewing options nearby

Pighin said while other nearby communities, like Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Burnaby and Richmond, have expressed interest in public hosting viewing parties, most are still just in the planning stages. Fans seeking a communal experience will also be able to attend the FIFA Fan Festival at Hastings Park in Vancouver as well as local businesses like bars and cafés.

Pighin said in her report some summer events in the city have already decided to scale back their ambitions to avoid conflicting with the World Cup. The Sunday summer concerts in Rocky Point Park will focus on dates in August, RibFest will run later in July, from the 26th to the 28th, and Golden Spike Days may also be truncated.

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Even at a slower pace, these Tri-City soccer players still have a love for the game

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on Nov. 23, 2023

The Tri-City Walking Soccer Club is proof in the pudding: you can take the players out of soccer, but you’ll never take the soccer out of the players.

The club started several years ago as an adjunct to the Dartmen, an affiliation of weekend warriors who’ve grown old together playing sports like traditional running soccer as well as baseball and hockey.

As members started to hit their mid-50s, many realized they were losing their stride. But instead of giving up sport altogether, they just decided to slow it down.

Walking soccer is just like it sounds, a modified version of “the beautiful game” without contact and played at a pace more comfortable for aging knees and joints.

It’s also played seven-aside on a smaller pitch — about half the size of a regular soccer field — at Port Coquitlam’s Gates Park.

Making new friends

Jim Swelander, who started the Dartmen in Burnaby back in 1969, said as the group has embraced their golden years, the social aspect of their sporting endeavours has taken precedence over competition.

“It’s about making new friends and staying in contact with old ones,” he said.

When the group, which ranges in age from 55 to over 70, invited women to start playing in their soccer matches the camaraderie and post-game revelry kicked up a notch with organized get-togethers every week at the Cat & Fiddle pub and other social events.

Denise Spletzer, 68, said she first attended a walking soccer match as a spectator but quickly decided the club needed a female touch even though she’d never played soccer before.

“I like to get exercise,” she said.

Spletzer invited some of her friends from her fitness class and from an initial contingent of seven just a couple of years ago, there’s now 43 women participating in the club’s mixed division alongside its male membership of 93, some of whom stick around for the more competitive men’s division afterwards.

Swelander said not everyone in the club comes out at once, of course.

Players come and go for the regular Tuesday matches that run year round (the league heads indoors to a facility in New Westminster during December and January) and new teams of seven players are created every week from those who do show up to play in the 25-minute halves.

Stoke competitive fire

Sue McInnes said the soccer matches are a way to bring back some of the competitive fire she last felt when she used to play field hockey in her younger days. But it’s the new friendships she treasures most.

“It’s fun,” she said. “The social aspect is the best.”

Swelander, who leads all the players through various warm-up exercises and skill drills for about an hour before the matches begin and then coaches from the sidelines once the opening whistle blows, said it can be a bit of a challenge keeping everyone on the straight and narrow given the wide range of soccer experience and ability on the pitch.

“It’s okay, as long as you have patience,” he said. “You’ve just got to remember you’re here for fun.”

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