Canada’s winning bid to host the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup is expected to bring more than $40 million in economic activity to Vancouver and an incalculable windfall for Vancouver Whitecaps co-owners Greg Kerfoot, Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett and Steve Nash.
Mallett and Nash in particular will benefit because they co-own both the men’s and women’s Whitecaps teams and the struggling Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) they founded in 2009.
That six-team, top-tier women’s soccer league is now centred on North America’s Eastern Seaboard because its only West Coast teams – the Los Angeles Sol and Bay Area Gold Pride – have folded.
Media have speculated that Mallett wants the WPS to expand to either Seattle or Vancouver.
“I don’t comment directly on the operations of the WPS,” Mallett told Business in Vancouver March 3. “The awarding of the women’s World Cup to Canada in 2015 should have a positive impact.”
The Vancouver Whitecaps’ women’s team led the United Soccer League W-League in attendance last year with approximately 2,000 fans per game.
WPS teams averaged 3,601 fans per game last year, down 23% from its inaugural season.
Interest in women’s soccer, however, is likely to increase not only because Canada has won the 2015 FIFA World Cup but also because its winning bid includes the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup for those aged younger than 20.
The federal government is investing $5 million in the 2014 tournament and $10 million in the 2015 competition.
Vancouver city council last month approved giving the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) $100,000 per year for four years to support both women’s tournaments.
The CSA expects all cities vying to host games to do the same, CSA director of business development Sandy Gage told BIV March 3, hours after FIFA confirmed Canada’s winning bid.
Local soccer insiders believe Vancouver’s newly renovated BC Place Stadium makes the city the front-runner to host the final game of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. CSA officials will visit all potential stadia this fall.
Toronto is hosting the 2015 Pan American Games and was not one of the seven cities that the CSA included in its bid to host the 2015 FIFA tournament.
But Gage told BIV that the CSA has not ruled Hogtown out as a potential site for 2015 World Cup games. Toronto organizers could change their decision not to take part in the tournament, get council to agree to pay the CSA $400,000 and then quickly organize a bid package.
Gage said that, contrary to media reports that only six of the seven current candidate cities will get to host games, all seven will be eligible. She added that FIFA will announce in either late 2011 or early 2012 how many cities will get to host games, where they will be, and which city will host the final.
Ottawa, Winnipeg, Montreal, Edmonton, Halifax and Moncton are the other cities that the CSA included in its winning bid to FIFA.
“One of the most important legacies of the 2010 Olympics is that it demonstrated what a strong city Vancouver is for a sporting competition,” said councillor Suzanne Anton.
“We have enthusiastic, hard-working volunteers and the infrastructure. We’re good at transportation. We have corporate support for events and enthusiastic crowds who attend. People love coming here. We have great hotel rooms. It’s beautiful here and safe.”
Anton, a former president of Kerrisdale Soccer Club, has not ruled out running for mayor in November. She entered politics in 2002 in part to fight for more and better access to playing fields.
Burnaby co-hosted the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup using the smallest facility in the tournament: a temporarily expanded Swangard Stadium.
That tournament had 24 teams, 52 total matches, 1.2 million attendees and an estimated economic impact of $259 million.
Gage said 20% of the 2007 tournament’s 270,000 unique spectators were visitors to Canada. She expects that the 2015 contest will similarly attract 1.2 million fans to games, 54,000 tourists and have an economic impact of about $259 million.
Major League Soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps men’s team has sold 15,500 season tickets and is planning to cap season tickets at 16,500.
The soccer configuration at Empire Field, where the team’s inaugural season will kick-off March 19 against Toronto FC, seats approximately 21,000 fans. (See “Soccer makes a pitch for major commercial breakthrough,” page 25.)