Tyler Broers of Vancouver said he’s never seen anything like what unfolded Saturday.
Australian World Cup fans packed his multi-level sports bar, Dublin Calling, before and after their team’s match against Turkey and nearly drank the bar dry.
“That never happens. It was the first time I felt like I was going to run out of alcohol,” Broers, the bar’s manager, said Tuesday.
Now he and other Vancouver bar operators are preparing for Thursday’s game at BC Place between Canada and Qatar and the next five games in Vancouver.
Staff reinforcements and beer are being rushed to Granville Street, which has been pedestrianized for the tournament and is the front line in the fight against World Cup thirst.
“Today we ordered 200 barrels for the weekend,” he said. “The Australians were actually trying to drink us dry. They said ‘we’ll drink you dry before we leave’.”
Broers said one of the bar’s DJs had to use his van to pick up 20 kegs from a local brewery on Saturday to protect their dwindling supply.
He said he “hired an entire army” before the tournament, and then even more staff for future matches.
Prime Minister David Eby, for his part, said he will host and shout “go Canada” during Canada’s game on Thursday.
He told a crowd gathered in Vancouver on Tuesday that everyone in BC and across the country should mark the occasion by wearing red.
Eby said Canadians have “been through a lot” over the past few years and it would be an opportunity to celebrate how Canada is rising on the world stage.
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The Prime Minister said the World Cup is buzzing in Vancouver as fan parades take to the streets. Business at bars and restaurants on Granville Street was up 20 to 40 percent, he added.
Tom Young manages Donnellan’s Irish Pub further down Granville and said the Australian fans were out in “full force” on Saturday.
“The ambition down here was like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Young said.
He said the closure of the road to vehicles until the end of the tour on July 19 had been great for business. It was showing a part of the city that sometimes seems rough.
“The concerns I suppose everyone had was, is it going to be clean enough and is it going to be good enough? And it was, and they’ve done it, and it’s been really good,” he said.
The weekend crowd was also good-natured — police said there was only one arrest, fewer than on a normal weekend.
Young said he would like to see year-round foot traffic, or at least on weekends, like it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We need to get back to that because it’s an entertainment area. It’s not just a main street,” he said.
Young said he also brought in additional staff. Fortunately there were “a lot of people looking for work” as the school year ends and summer begins, all coinciding with the World Cup.
He said Saturday’s game gave the staff an idea of what to expect on Thursday.
“We learned some lessons over the weekend for sure,” he said. “Seeing how many people were on the road and everything, but I think Thursday will be the same.”
Adrenaline Vancity tattoo and piercing shop in Granville, meanwhile, is offering free tattoos for Team Canada players in its booth and a floor-to-ceiling wall of pre-drawn, soccer-themed flash tattoos.
Michael Bilinsky, Adrenaline’s head of drilling and operations manager, said no players have accepted the offer, but the fans are another story.
“We’ve had thousands of people come to permanently cement their trip here to Vancouver for FIFA and the World Cup,” he said.
“We’ve done everything from country flags to maple leaves, mountains and soccer balls.
“It’s been pretty awesome.”
Bilinsky said a fire a few years ago had closed the store, but being open for the World Cup is “huge” and they’ve extended their hours and hired more people.
“We actually brought in some of our older tattoo artists who have moved on to other studios to bring them back into guest spots, just to be able to have enough people on staff to help accommodate the influx of clientele,” he said.
In Dublin Calling, Broers said the bar had high hopes for the World Cup but was caught in a positive way on Saturday. They are now more prepared as the tournament continues.
Thursday’s game is at 3pm, while New Zealand will play Egypt on Sunday, kick-off at 6pm.
The 9pm kick-off for the Australia-Turkey match gave Aussie fans more time in the grass before heading to the stadium and Broers suspects they have set a high standard.
“We didn’t really expect that kind of opening weekend for him. I’m not sure if anyone will be able to top the Australians,” he said. “This was a very unique and amazing experience to have.”
&copies 2026 The Canadian Press
