The Vancouver Sun
Friday, June 26, 2015
By Staff

Tourism Vancouver should think about hiring the Hayward family of Ashburn, Virginia.

Todd Hayward’s video travelogue of his family’s trip to Vancouver for the FIFA Women’s World Cup sells our city as well as any professionally produce promo video ever could.

The footage is stunning.

Using just a GoPro and a stabilizer, Hayward captured his soccer-loving family — wife Priscilla and daughters Avery and Audrey — exploring downtown, Yaletown, Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, Stanley Park, Lynn Canyon, Queen Elizabeth Park, Granville Island, English Bay, Coal Harbor, Cypress Mountain, and, of course, BC Place, where they watched the U.S. national team beat Nigeria 1-0 on June 16.

They packed all that into a five-day trip.

“We make a habit out of getting up in the really early hours to get to places before anybody else,” said Todd. “We go all day until we crash at night.”

“We had been to Vancouver a couple of times in the past, it’s one of the few cities we don’t mind going to over and over again. Both of our daughters play soccer and we are big soccer fans, so when we found out one of the (Team USA) games was there that was our excuse for going back,” said Todd Hayward. “People out east have no concept about all the great things there are to do in Vancouver.”

"We have always told people how awesome Vancouver is, but photos have never really done it justice.  Now we show our friends that video and they are like ‘Oh my god, that looks insane.’ I think you are going to be seeing some of our friends out there now."

More than 53,000 fans, most of them Americans, filled BC Place for the Group D game against Nigeria.

Team USA plays China in the World Cup quarter-final today (4:30 p.m. on CTV) in Ottawa. The team could return to Vancouver again — and bring with it another invasion of U.S. fans — if it advances to the championship game on July 5.

The city of Vancouver estimated the World Cup would inject $36.7 million into the local economy.

View the video here: https://youtu.be/0JpSCQUe9_k

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