October 6, 2006 – According to the Vancouver Sun, Vancouver and Seattle will join forces to try to attract at least one post-2010 global mega-event, as well as co-hosting the 2018 World Cup of soccer, a world’s fair around 2020 and/or the 2028 Summer Olympics.

This past Thursday, the boards of Tourism Vancouver and the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau voted unanimously to create a study group to examine the viability of bidding for one of those events. The Sun reported that, “This is a great region of North America and it only makes sense that the two of us work together to pursue a common vision,” Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau chairman Jeffrey Wright said in an interview. “. . . We’re very excited about what you have accomplished here in Vancouver and we want to participate in that success.”

This would be unprecedented ground for Vancouver, as no city has ever hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and there have never been official co-hosts of any Games, although equestrian events for the 1956 Melbourne Games were held in Stockholm because of quarantine issues. The other precedent for co-hosting a major event would be the 2002 World Cup of soccer, co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.