A new survey among residents in Metro Vancouver suggests that the majority of people are enthusiastic about the upcoming FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
56 per cent either \u201cstrongly support\u201d or \u201csupport\u201d that seven matches of the most important soccer tournament in the world will take place at BC Place between June and July this year.<\/p>\n
The poll, conducted by Vancouver-based market researcher Mustel Group, found that the enthusiasm is highest among male respondents and young residents, aged between 18 and 34.<\/p>\n
35 per cent of residents in both groups say that they plan to either attend or follow the matches.<\/p>\n
Interest among people 35 and older is almost 10 per cent less.<\/p>\n
Only 16 per cent of female respondents show interest in following the matches while the enthusiasm is lowest among residents above 55 years of age (15 per cent).<\/p>\n
Most Metro Vancouver residents express the hope that the event will have lasting economic impacts for the region, with 28 per cent saying that increased tourism could be a key benefit.<\/p>\n
However, concerns about being one of the 16 host venues are present too among Metro Vancouverites, with 25 per cent saying that they are not looking forward to disruptions to daily life due to crowds. After all, 350,000 visitors are expected to arrive in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Traffic congestion and security risks, such as crime, follow with 16 per cent each.<\/p>\n
Increased traffic is especially expected in the downtown core and around the PNE where the FIFA Fan Festival take place.<\/p>\n
When asked about those concerns, the City of Vancouver tells 1130 NewsRadio that staff have been engaging with more than 80 community groups, but the specifics of those conversations have been unclear.<\/p>\n
23 per cent say FIFA will be \u2018better\u2019 than Winter Olympics<\/p>\n
Owner of the pollster, Evi Mustel, tells 1130 NewsRadio that a lot of people are backing the tournament because they remember the good times from the 2010 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly, expectations are not as high maybe as they were for the Olympics, but I think people are looking forward to having a similar repeat of that experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In fact, the survey found that 38 per cent of respondents expect that having the World Cup in the city will be as good an experience as the 2010 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
About one\u2011quarter even say it will be \u201cbetter,\u201d while 34 per cent say it will not be as good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if people aren\u2019t planning on watching the games or attending any of the matches, they still favour hosting the games,\u201d Mustel added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re just looking forward to that experience of welcoming visitors from all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new survey among residents in Metro Vancouver suggests that the majority of people are enthusiastic about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-634037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}