Vancouver sees successful start of FIFA World Cup, finds stolen Canada jersey

Vancouver could not have asked for a better FIFA World Cup debut this weekend.

Australia and Türkiye supporters marched through the streets before and after their match on Saturday night.

BC Place was officially sold out with 52,497 fans in attendance.

Vancouver police say there were two arrests made, but both were minor.

“Great attitude, you know, high fives, our officers are having a great time,” Vancouver police deputy Chief Don Chapman said.

“Public was having a good time. So yeah, job well done, but we’re not finished yet. A long way to go.”

TransLink recorded its busiest Saturday ridership for a BC Place event since the 2010 Olympics as thousands relied on transit to get to and from the game.

There were no issues reported as ridership around BC Place reached historic levels, surpassing both Taylor Swift’s Saturday concert in 2024 as part of her Eras Tour and the Lionel Messi match last year, according to TransLink.

SkyTrain saw especially strong demand, with almost 450,000 boardings, up 25 per cent compared to a typical Saturday, Translink stated in a release. SeaBus saw the highest percentage increase by mode, with ridership up more than 37 per cent, the organization added.

And some more good news on Monday morning when the West End Business Improvement Association said that the giant Team Canada jersey stolen from the “A-maze-ing Laughter” statues for the second time has been found.

The organization said that neighbourhood police officer Jason Doucette recovered it Monday.

Before the start of the World Cup, the Business Improvement Association worked with local artist Maddy from Maddles Made to create and install some jerseys and other soccer-related items for the statues located near English Bay.

Soon after being installed, a few scarves went missing and then the Team Canada jersey was taken and a new one was installed.

However, on Sunday morning, the giant jersey was stolen again, despite being secured by steel cables.

The Team Egypt jersey was also vandalized.