B.C. government reveals $729 million price tag for hosting FIFA World Cup

The price of the FIFA World Cup has only ticked up year over year, and the provincial government has finally provided an update.

The province says the final bill could be up to $729 million — over $100 million more than they’d thought last year.

Explicitly, it says the “gross core and essential costs to government” are estimated to range between a low of $685 million and a high of $729 million.

Anne Kang, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, and Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth, presented the latest figures at a media event Friday morning.

The province’s presentation repeatedly impressed that its “net core and essential hosting costs” had decreased since the last estimate, now ranging from $90 million to $114 million.

It comes just over a week after the federal budget watchdog, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, reported that Canada will spend just over $1 billion to host 13 matches in Vancouver and Toronto this summer. That averages out to $82 million per game.

At the time, BC Director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation Carson Binda told 1130 NewsRadio that price tag was simply too much money to host some soccer games.

“Especially at a time Canada’s debt is going through the roof and taxpayers are looking at every opportunity to find savings. A $1 billion for 13 soccer games is a lot of money, and taxpayers can’t afford it,” said Binda.

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The last update organizers provided was in June 2025, with an estimate of $624 million.

Binda doesn’t think the province can justify spending that much, if not more, on the World Cup.

“Folks are struggling, and our core services are crumbling. There’s not money lying around to be blown on a big bonanza like this. And look, we know FIFA is an incredibly wasteful organization… their demands from taxpayers, in many cases, are far above what’s reasonable. And I think politicians have been far too willing to say ‘Yes,’ to FIFA without doing the basic work of looking for savings and making sure taxpayers have real accountability here.”

He suspects that the province didn’t do the math before jumping on board to host, as costs have steadily risen year after year.

“The B.C. government’s own numbers say this isn’t going to make taxpayers any money.”

Binda also questions the provincial government touting the tourism benefits of hosting duties, pointing to Canada only hosting 13 matches out of more than 100 during the entire tournament.

“We’re not hosting a World Cup, we’re hosting at a tiny fraction of one. We’ve seen an unacceptable lack of accountability from Day One with the B.C. government over these seven international soccer games hosted at BC Place.”

Friday’s release comes one day after the Spring Legislative Session ended, meaning whatever numbers are released can’t and won’t be debated in the capital.

The government’s books were a hot topic during Question Period on May 26.

“British Columbians have seen five credit rating downgrades in the past four years. Taxpayers’ debt will increase to nearly $200 billion by the end of the fiscal plan. It was less than $45 billion when this government took office. This government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem,” said BC Conservative MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie, Kiel Giddens.

“The [BC] NDP has created this crisis through reckless spending and zero discipline.”

Finance Minister Brenda Bailey pushed back.

“Budget 2026 takes serious action on this issue. We know that British Columbia, that other provinces across Canada, and jurisdictions around the world are posting record deficits. We are in an economic downturn, we are in a trade war, there is a war happening in the Middle East, these are real issues that are impacting our economy.”

Bailey went on to admit the province must continue to take measures to “bring down our spending.”

BC Place will host its first FIFA World Cup match on June 13.

—With files from Charles Brockman and Aastha Pandey-Kanaan