In practice, this means that Canada\u2019s soccer operations will be run out of the NSDC, both prior to and throughout the duration of the World Cup, hosting the team\u2019s staff and players for training. The team will open the tournament against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto on Jun. 12, but will be playing the majority of their games in the group stage in Vancouver, returning to the city for games against Qatar and Switzerland on Jun. 18 and 24, respectively. While not training, the team will stay downtown at The Westin Bayshore.<\/p>\n
This has been a long time coming for the NSDC. The facility, which currently houses both UBC\u2019s varsity soccer programs and the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS, was built with this kind of use in mind. While the Whitecaps were always intended as the primary tenant of the NSDC, the BC government \u2014 who partnered with the Whitecaps and UBC to build the facility \u2014 had bigger plans from the start. In a 2012 press release, the province<\/a> said it hoped the centre would \u201chelp Vancouver attract and host major sporting events \u2014 including the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, a Major League Soccer all-star game, and major international friendlies.\u201d <\/p>\n The provincial government ultimately committed $11 million towards the $27-million project, according to Board of Governors documents. The Whitecaps paid for the rest, and UBC donated the land.<\/p>\n Returns on that investment have so far been mixed. While Vancouver has hosted the Men\u2019s National Team in international competition three times since the NSDC opened, they haven\u2019t hit the other two targets they set out for themselves. The opening of the facility in June of 2017 came too late for the 2015 Women\u2019s World Cup, with teams training at Empire Field in Vancouver instead of the NSDC. No MLS all-star events have taken place in the city in the near-decade since its inception.<\/p>\n With soccer\u2019s biggest stage choosing the NSDC as one of only two \u201cbase camp\u201d sites in the country, that changes.<\/p>\n While unprecedented, FIFA and Canada Soccer\u2019s choice makes sense. Despite the lack of major international recognition up to this point, the NSDC has been a success locally, especially for the Whitecaps. Even though the Whitecaps have been a fixture in Vancouver since 1974 \u2014 across multiple leagues \u2014 prior to the NSDC, they never had a dedicated training space. In the Whitecaps\u2019 press release<\/a> when the NSDC opened, they listed nine different facilities that they had trained at since their founding \u2014 a nomadic journey.<\/p>\n \n The NSDC was designed with the Whitecaps in mind \u2014 but it was also built with aspirations of drawing attention on an international stage. With the World Cup, those aspirations have been realized. Aleah Kippan \/ The Ubyssey\n<\/p>\n That journey ended in 2017. The Whitecaps have trained at the facility since it opened, with the NSDC housing not just their first team, but also their academy teams, including Whitecaps FC 2 in the MLS Next Pro development league, as well as their U-18, U-16 and U-15 squads. They also gained another professional tenant in Vancouver Rise FC, who began play in the newly-founded Northern Super League in 2025.<\/p>\n The 38,000 square foot facility consists of a three-storey field house, three grass playing fields and two artificial turf fields. It provides enough capacity for 200 players and personnel to operate out of the building continuously throughout the season.<\/p>\n That capacity seems to have played a key role in Canada Soccer choosing the NSDC for their World Cup base camp. In Canada Soccer\u2019s official release<\/a> published on Tuesday, they note that the selection of the NSDC was the result of \u201can extensive evaluation process to identify a base camp in Canada that would meet the sporting, logistical and operational demands of a home FIFA World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n The NSDC also earned high praise from the coaching staff in Canada Soccer\u2019s release. Jesse Marsch, head coach of the Men\u2019s National Team, noted that \u201cby establishing our team base camp in Vancouver, we are securing a stable, private and world-class environment where our team staff can operate at the highest level to support the team\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n
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