Vancouver winner of FIFA presale lottery among first to buy tickets for BC Place games

A Vancouver small business owner was among the millions to enter the draw for the first FIFA tickets, but one of only a few to win.

Like millions of people around the world, Ryan Slater entered the Visa presale lottery for a chance to get first access to tickets for the 2026 World Cup.

He knew emails would be going out to winners early on Oct. 1, and when he woke up that morning he was shocked to learn he was one of the lucky ones.

“I saw that I got the email and then rushed to message all my friends to see if anyone else had got it, and I got unanimous replies no one else had won,” said Slater, who owns The Juice Truck in Vancouver and is a lifelong soccer fan.

He was excited for the chance to experience the World Cup at BC Place with friends and family.

“For me, it would be very special. I have gone to every Whitecaps game with my dad for the last decade. So I think going to a Canada match here in Vancouver and the fact there’s Whitecaps players on the team, it would be the ultimate experience,” he said.

His time slot for buying tickets opened at 8 a.m. on Friday morning, and he was able to score tickets to both of Canada’s round robin games. The price range? $230 to $665 each. The round robin matches that don’t include Canada weren’t much cheaper, he said.

Slater also bought tickets for the round of 32 and round of 16, which was priced as high as $825. He hopes Canada gets through to the elimination games, but he wants to watch regardless.

Slater chose to buy the most expensive section for his games, calling it a once in a lifetime experience. He found there were no tickets for under $100, which FIFA said would be available.

“(It wasn’t) as cheap as they promised people, but not unreasonable considering it only happens once every four years and this will be the one time in Vancouver it will ever happen,” Slater said.

He knows many other people in his shoes would have seen the presale lottery as a chance to make money on the resale market. Winners had the opportunity to buy up to 40 tickets at all World Cup venues, but Slater chose not to.

“Hopefully there aren’t that many scalpers in Vancouver, because it ruins it for all of us who really want to watch and support Canada,” he said.

“You can only buy four tickets per day, so they have limited what you can get per match.”

While getting access to the presale wasn’t easy, Slater found the buying was.

“The process was simpler than I thought it would be,” he said.

“My dad will be very excited to hear this all worked out.”

His message for British Columbians who weren’t lucky enough to get access to these initial tickets?

“This is just the Visa presale, which is the first stage, and there are at least two, if not three, more stages to still get tickets,” Slater said.

“We still have hope.”