A beloved East Vancouver skatepark will close for more than two months this summer due to FIFA World Cup festivities, a move local skaters say will sideline athletes during peak training season.

Hastings Skatepark will shut down from late May through the end of July as part of preparations for the FIFA Fan Festival Vancouver at the Pacific National Exhibition grounds.

For many in the skateboarding community, that window is critical.

“Those are the driest, most consistent weather windows and that is the busiest time the skatepark gets used,” said Adam Higgins, executive director with Canada Skateboard.

He said the timing is particularly difficult as athletes prepare for Olympic qualification events, while also noting there are no indoor skateboarding facilities in the city. 

Higgins said that many top Canadian skaters relocate to California to train due to a lack of such facilities in B.C.

Closing for security concerns

The FIFA World Cup 2026 Vancouver host committee says the park sits inside the secured festival area and that maintaining public access is not feasible for security reasons.

“Keeping it open during the event would … introduce risks associated with unscreened access near the secure perimeter, including the possibility of prohibited items entering the festival area,” the committee said in a statement. 

It says keeping the area open would require “significant additional construction and security resources.”

The Vancouver Skateboard Coalition says it was notified the park would close for approximately two and a half months, including event setup and takedown.

President Michelle Pezel said the group met with the host committee in January and suggested ways to keep the park open, including additional fencing and controlled access similar to arrangements used during the annual PNE fair.

But in the coalition’s most recent meeting with the hosts on Wednesday, Pezel said none of the recommendations were considered.  

“Include the community, we can help you make it work,” she said. “It’s like they are saying ‘the party’s over here but your community isn’t invited’.”

The committee says the team explored multiple site configurations to determine whether the Hastings Skatepark could remain open during the event but have determined that temporary closure is the safest option.

It says skateboarders can use other city parks, including nearby Leeside Skatepark.

Hastings Skatepark: ‘Nothing else like it’

Adam Hopkins, a Team Canada skateboarder and a coach for the national park team, said he moved to Vancouver 15 years ago from Thunder Bay, Ont., specifically because of the Hastings bowl.

Built in 2001, he describes it as the closest thing in Western Canada to a competition-level Olympic park course.

“It is where I trained when I was competing for the Olympics,” Hopkins said. “It is still the best park style skatepark we have in Canada.”

Skateboarding made its Olympics debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Park skateboarding in the Olympics is a discipline where athletes perform high-flying, aerial tricks and technical maneuvers inside a deep, concrete bowl-shaped course much like the one at Hastings Park. 

“FIFA’s coming here, that’s great … but what about our national team athletes,” Hopkins added.

The pro skateboarder says young Olympic hopefuls from all over Canada come to the park to improve themselves and meet like-minded athletes. 

One among them is 12-year-old Michael ‘Mikey’ Cunningham who has been skating at Hastings since he was five. 

He travels from Port Coquitlam with his parents to practice there and says he’s made many of his closest friends there.

“I’m trying to get into the Olympics,” he said. “We need a skatepark in the summer because in the winter it’s always wet.”

The fan event, which will be a live viewing site showing every single game of the 80 game tournament, will also temporarily close down Momiji Gardens and the Italian Gardens and will impact other businesses and tenants within the PNE grounds including CircusWest, Rolla Skate Club and Hastings Park Childcare Centre.