Vancouver is a place that I had never visited but always wanted to, so this trip was highly anticipated. I found a city that is crazy about soccer, about sports, that is beautifully situated by the water and a cosmopolitan downtown that is walkable.
Soccer is a big topic in Vancouver right now beyond just the World Cup. This fan base, energized by the recent success of its Whitecaps franchise in Major League Soccer and its star forward Thomas Müller, may soon lose the team that has been part of the city’s fabric for decades. The #SaveTheCaps movement in town is strong and the World Cup is another moment to show the region that soccer has a foothold in this city and that losing the team should not be considered a possibility.
This year’s World Cup adventure for my fiancée, Johanna, and me extends to five of the 16 host cities, four in the U.S. and one in Canada. Throughout the next few weeks, I’ll be taking readers behind the scenes at what it was like as a fan in each city and each stadium — what the city was like and what the stadium experience was like to make the fan experience as seamless as possible. Our third stop was Vancouver.
The Fan Experience
Getting to the Game: We left the nearby hotel at 5 p.m. for an 8 p.m. kickoff and got into the gates at 5:30, having to walk around the entire perimeter of the stadium before the fan ticket check. There were volunteers all over the place to help keep people moving along.
Outside the Stadium: Once inside the security perimeter, the fan activations were right in your face with each of the sponsors that we’ve become accustomed to seeing at each stop. The DJ was, to put it mildly, exorbitantly loud. Having walked around the back of the stadium, we tracked our way back up to the stadium and along the block were 50-50 raffles to benefit youth soccer in the area as well as a variety of food trucks with different foods, although they had to have the FIFA-approved Coca-Cola stand in front of the trucks to take orders.
Featuring the infamous FIFA-mandated taping over a Heinz logo because it's not an official sponsor.
The Stadium: BC Place was the smallest by far for us to visit during the World Cup. It’s a domed stadium but the roof is fairly low hanging to keep in all the noise, which players have said throughout the tournament they appreciate. It was a bit less appreciated during the leadup to the game with the in-stadium presenters yelling as loud as they could. The New Zealand fans were not very visible compared to the Belgium fans.
Leaving the Game: This was the easiest process for us given that we were staying nearby. It took 15 minutes — believe it or not — from leaving the stadium to getting to the hotel thanks to the fan perimeter being widened to include additional exits.
One more thing … is where Johanna can say what she thinks about the experience. Here are her thoughts: I do not recommend getting sick 48 hours before a trip. I powered through it, and definitely appreciated that we were staying nearby so that we weren’t stuck in a long light rail line like in Houston and that the weather was mild so we weren’t watching a game in the rain like in Philadelphia. I thought the smaller stadium might make it more intimate, but I felt like it sucked some of the atmosphere out of the World Cup experience as a fan. Spoiler alert: I now regret rooting for Belgium in this game!
Where We Ate
Din Tai Fung, to me, was just the nearby place that we would get dumplings and noodles from when we lived in Los Angeles. I then learned just how popular the restaurant was and we’ve had it in subsequent returns to Southern California. This location in Vancouver was a really nice spot, with a reasonable wait, and everything we tasted was terrific — and we ordered a lot of dumplings.
Sandbar is on the inner harbor and was recommended by a former co-worker of mine, Justin Shaw, who had loved it on a previous visit. The food did not disappoint for dinner with crab cakes that were perfectly cooked with a crispy breaded crust and moist crab meat inside. We both had fresh catches of the day, halibut and sockeye salmon, and both were fire-grilled beautifully with seasoned potatoes, garlic rice and fresh grilled vegetables.
What Else We Did
We went to the Soccer & Technology experience from the FIFA Museum at Science World near BC Place. The exhibit was actually entertaining given what you would normally expect from FIFA with a look at some of the various things that have developed including broadcast specifically, with interactive exhibits that I was able to use to get an idea of what a VAR review included plus a director’s cut for a highlight. I was also able to see some of the advances in the soccer ball (believe it or not) plus how the ticketing system has changed and things for referees, from the substitution cards that coaches needed to fill out to how referees tracked yellow and red cards over the years.
Where We Stayed
We stayed at the Sandman Signature Hotel with a view of BC Place and perfectly situated downtown. The hotel restaurant was having watch parties for each of the games, not only in Vancouver, and the lobby was filled with nods to the World Cup including a strip of artificial turf at the reception desk, flags hanging from the ceiling and soccer ball pillows on the couches in the lobby.
The Airport Experience
The Vancouver airport was pretty empty given the times that we were arriving and leaving but it was an exceptionally clean and open area for guests. It, like the city as a whole, leaves me wanting to come back again and again to do more things in the future.
Next stop on the journey: San Jose.
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