Soccer on the big screen: City of Surrey hosts fan zones for FIFA games
There will be three locations across the city to enjoy live broadcasts and activities
FIFA fans can visit the City of Surrey's soccer fan zones this summer to watch the World Cup games. (Submitted)
The FIFA World Cup is almost here — and Surrey is bringing the stadium atmosphere to your backyard.
The City of Surrey will offer three fan zones from June 11 to July 19, where the public can access free match viewing opportunities.
Canada is co-hosting this year’s FIFA World Cup alongside the U.S. and Mexico. Vancouver and Toronto are the host cities for the 13 games happening in Canada.
The fan zones will be located at Surrey Civic Plaza, the Cloverdale Agriplex, and South Surrey Athletic Park. Each site will feature big-screen broadcasts of the games, food trucks, beer gardens, and live entertainment. Visitors will also be able to enjoy inflatable amusement games, including one for soccer kick accuracy.
The city’s landscape operations and park partnerships manager, Dan Nielsen, says local sport community groups have been invited to the fan zones to raise awareness about what they offer, including soccer club options.
“We have some of the largest participation levels of children playing sport in the Lower Mainland,” Nielsen says. “We can showcase some of the great things that they’re doing. [The groups] are going to activate in a way that’s interactive [through] games and activities for people to participate in.”
More than 100 games will be shown across the fan zones. Nielsen says these sites will showcase the city’s diversity and what it offers visitors.
To make this all possible, he says there will be hundreds of volunteers throughout the tournament.
“Volunteers are really the key that allows us to continue to operate these events,” Nielsen says. “It’s so rewarding to see community members wanting to come out and be a part of it and say, ‘What can I do to help?’”
With the World Cup kicking off soon, he says the community is excited for the action to get underway.
“I hope that it’ll be similar to the Winter Olympics, where the whole region seemed to just come alive and celebrate,” Nielsen says.
He is excited to take in the energy at the events. He hopes the community will come out early and come back regularly to the fan zones.
“I hope they take away some national pride in our team.”
For more information, visit www.surreysoccerfanzones.ca.
