Rising costs of sports in Vancouver now includes paid parking

By Elliot Moffat-Shojania

Adding to the cost of playing sports in Vancouver, parking around rinks, recreation centres and beaches has now become more difficult and more expensive as many free spots are now paid.

“Now, pretty much everything is pay parking no matter where you go,” said Ken Giesbrecht, a Vancouver resident who has been playing drop-in hockey at rinks around Vancouver for eight years.

Giesbrecht has lived in Vancouver since 1989 and said the parking has gotten worse.

“There used to be a lot more free parking, there’s very little free parking now, so everything’s metered,” said Giesbrecht. “It’s a little bit frustrating.”

In Mount Pleasant, approximately 350 remaining unregulated and time-limited spaces are being converted to metered parking.

Standardized parking rates were adjusted in 2024 doubling the hourly parking rate from $1 to $2 and from $5 per day to $10 per day according to the City of Vancouver website.

“Hillcrest Community Centre also has a very busy parking lot, so they can’t really handle the overflow parking from Nat Bailey Stadium,” said Sara Coyne, a Burnaby resident.

“We knew it was going to be really crowded. We arrived very, very early for the game,” said Coyne. “Like you have a quite a long waiting stadium to get to street parking.”

Giesbrecht said the West End Rink parkade has been closed for two months. “It’s a tough act to park on the street.”

Although finding parking in Vancouver never used to be a concern for Tracey Rinas, a local realtor, she now has found it increasingly difficult and doesn’t mind paying for a spot, but there’s a limit to the fee that she’s willing to pay. 

Last year, a change.org petition was set up and signed by over 8,000 people protesting the installation of paid parking meters at Spanish Banks Beach. Paid meters were put in place as a pilot program by the Vancouver Park Board.  However, the meters remain in operation at the beach.