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.
