It's impossible to really answer right now whether the World Cup was all 'worth it,' in terms of public costs and long-term benefits. But the tournament provided a reason to celebrate and come together with family, friends, and strangers — at a time when many Canadians needed just that

As B.C.’s sports minister, Anne Kang was lucky enough to be at B.C. Place last month, one of a reported crowd of 52,497 spectators watching Canada take on Switzerland in what was, at that time, the Canadian team’s biggest match ever.

But Kang’s most memorable World Cup experience was actually with a much smaller crowd, nine days earlier and some 1,000 kilometres north of Vancouver’s stadium, in the parking lot outside Tumbler Ridge’s curling rink.

Back in January, FIFA announced a series of free-to-the-public World Cup watch parties, with 40 stops across Canada. After the shocking mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge in February that killed eight people, the provincial government asked FIFA to add the northeastern B.C. town as a 41st stop.

Tumbler Ridge’s mayor, councillors, kids, parents, first responders and other community members came out to watch group-stage matches on a huge outdoor screen. There were live musical performances, teens and seniors kicking soccer balls around, and children waving flags.

“What I heard from the community is that it brought people out together,” Kang said in an interview this week. “It gave them strength, and permission to be able to celebrate.”

While most of us haven’t experienced anything remotely close to what the people of Tumbler Ridge endured, a lot of recent news in B.C. and around the world has not been good, economically, geopolitically, or otherwise.

Everybody wants a reason to celebrate. Sometimes a town, or province, or country, feels like it needs a reason — or permission, as Kang says — to celebrate. This 39-day World Cup spectacle provided a good measure of that.

Kang caught World Cup games at free watch parties in Maple Ridge, Langford, Langley, Surrey, Port Coquitlam, Victoria, North Vancouver’s Shipyards, and Vancouver’s FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE. While Vancouver was the only B.C. city to host matches, the tournament brought a sense of festivity and involvement to other parts of the province and country, with record-setting numbers of Canadians watching on TV.

Local sentiment was not always so rosy. In the months leading up to the World Cup, while politicians and the hospitality industry worked hard to drum up enthusiasm, many Vancouverites were pessimistic.

Three weeks before the tournament, Canada’s independent Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated the public cost of hosting six games in Toronto at $380 million, and Vancouver’s seven games at $578 million.

That big taxpayer investment won’t yield a legacy of physical infrastructure like Vancouver’s previous big global events. Expo 86 and the 2010 Olympics left behind whole new neighbourhoods and rapid transit lines. This time, Vancouver, one of 16 host cities, is left with upgrades to B.C. Place (which might soon lose the soccer team that called the stadium home for the last 15 years), and some new pitches around B.C. that will be open for community use.

The new PNE Amphitheatre, which hosted Vancouver’s Fan Fest and has received great reviews, may be remembered by some as a World Cup legacy, but the project was already approved and in the works before FIFA confirmed Vancouver as a host city.

Two days before the World Cup kicked off, the Angus Reid Institute released a poll reporting 72 per cent of Metro Vancouver residents believed the tournament would not be worth the cost. More Metro residents said they were “disinterested” in watching any matches in any way (51 per cent), than those who were excited the tournament was coming to town (34 per cent).

At that time, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim — a big World Cup booster — told Postmedia the tournament would not only provide a short-term boost for hotels, restaurants, and retailers, but also larger, longer-term local economic impacts, giving the city exposure that “can’t be replicated through traditional marketing or tourism campaigns.”

“We’re confident that once the world arrives and Vancouverites experience everything that’s planned, many people will see why this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our city,” Sim said.

It’s impossible to know now whether it was all “worth it”, or just how those longer-term economic impacts may or may not materialize. But the mayor seems to have been largely correct in his prediction that Vancouverites would get caught up in the fun after the tournament started and the crowds arrived.

During the World Cup, which finishes with Sunday’s championship final between Argentina and Spain, many Vancouverites and British Columbians embraced this permission to gather with friends and family and strangers, and shout and sing, and scream at TVs and referees. And maybe crack a beer during a morning match (it’s a special occasion), as well as strike up conversations with visitors from countries they know nothing about.

The tournament helped change the way we use public spaces in Vancouver, maybe forever. Kids are getting interested not just in the “beautiful game,” which is great, but also in learning about the rest of the world and its people — which might be even better.

Angus Reid hasn’t yet released new polling on public sentiment around the World Cup, but reports from other sources, both anecdotal and data-based, seem positive. Another local public opinion firm, Research Co., surveyed Metro Vancouverites in late June and early July, after the group stage was over and elimination rounds were heating up. The poll found nearly three-quarters of Metro Vancouverites believed the tournament would have a mostly positive impact on B.C. and Vancouver, and most said they had not been particularly inconvenienced.

Research Co. president Mario Canseco isn’t surprised locals seem happier about the tournament now.

Part of that is because Vancouver managed to host this global event without major security incidents or transportation problems. TransLink reported huge ridership numbers, and no service disruptions. As TransLink spokesperson Anita Bathe commented, “The buzz of the tournament was felt all throughout the transit system.”

Bathe gets paid to say good things about TransLink, but what she’s saying is true: Just riding Vancouver’s SkyTrains, buses and SeaBuses during the tournament provided its own front-row ticket to a crowded, friendly, vibrant international atmosphere. Passengers’ eyes lit up when they heard Christine Sinclair’s voice on the SkyTrain speaker welcoming them to the Main Street-Science World Station. The “Last Mile” march from that instantly iconic Science World soccer ball to the stadium provided an indelible experience.

Canseco said Vancouver’s organizing committee “should be commended for their performance” with security and transportation. But there is another reason Vancouverites feel so good about the tournament, one beyond the control of organizers and politicians.

“Part of it is a reaction to the success of the team,” said Canseco, who covered the 1994 and 1998 World Cups as a broadcast journalist in Mexico before starting Research Co. “If Canada had lost all three games and been eliminated, you’re probably not going to be feeling as great about hosting this thing.”

Despite key injuries, the Canadians played beautiful soccer, made their country proud, and delivered so many firsts in the men’s World Cup, Canada’s first-ever point in its third tournament appearance, then the first win, first time advancing from the group stage, and then defeating South Africa in a thriller in L.A., Canada’s first elimination round win.

Jessie Adcock, Vancouver’s chief delivery officer for the World Cup, probably spent more waking hours over the past year thinking about the tournament than most other Canadians, other than perhaps the athletes on the team. This week, with Vancouver’s hosting duties finished and the tournament nearing completion, Adcock said she will remember “seeing the smiles, the celebration, and the unity amongst families, friends, strangers and neighbours as they came together across Vancouver to celebrate the game.”

“There was an incredible energy and sense of connection that crossed cultures and generations,” Adcock said. “The FIFA World Cup brought people together in a way that exceeded our expectations, and left its mark on people, communities, and the sport’s future in this country.”

Indeed, the sport’s future in this country looks brighter than it has in a long time, maybe ever. The Canadian women’s national soccer team has been succeeding at the world’s top level for years (notwithstanding the embarrassing cheating scandal at the Paris Olympics). Now the men’s side has shown that they, too, can really compete on the biggest stage.

Back in 2015, Canada’s successful hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup sparked a surge of interest in soccer for Canadian kids, which includes the generation representing their country this summer, a decade later, on the field in Vancouver and Toronto in the men’s tournament.

Who knows, maybe we could even do it all again, and get more of our neighbours involved. Another Research Co. poll conducted during the tournament, this one with a national audience, found a little more than two-thirds of Canadians would like their country to host the 2038 World Cup, with most of them wanting to see additional cities beyond Vancouver and Toronto also sharing hosting duties.

Next week, after Sunday’s final, Vancouver and Canada and the world have no shortage of big problems to confront. And we’ll also still need reasons to celebrate in the future.