A large annual sports tournament turned Surrey into a veritable soccer city over the weekend, starting Friday afternoon (March 14).
The 2025 Surrey Mayor's Cup saw players, coaches and parents with 449 teams play games in more than four dozen divisions at 14 venues, headquartered at Newton Athletic Park.
Billed as "Western Canada’s premier youth soccer tournament," Surrey Mayor's Cup welcomes boys and girls teams from around North America, from U8 to U18 divisions of all skill levels, rec to competitive.
The Surrey FC soccer club hosts the tournament with partner EventConnect, which helps with registration, payments, team/player info, hotel bookings and communications.
Linked on surreyfc.com/surreymayorscup, the tournament schedule details three days of games on fields across Surrey and into North Delta.
In Surrey, January's Wickfest female hockey tournament was the first of several "marquee sport tourism events" here in 2025, with Surrey Mayor's Cup among them. Sport Surrey said 16 sport tourism events were secured for 2025 as of January, with more to come.
Sport Surrey, the city's sports tourism driver, is a partnership of the City of Surrey, Surrey Hotel Motel Association and Discover Surrey. The Sport Surrey website sells Surrey as "Canada's year-round sports hub" and "one of Canada’s most sought-after destinations for major sporting events."
Surrey's Sport Tourism Strategy will soon be updated with recent capital investments in sport facilities, including the new hockey arena in Cloverdale and the addition of another field hockey turf at Tamanawis Park in Newton.
In 2025, Sport Surrey's successful-bid events include the Fortinet Cup golf tournament hosted by PGA Tour Americas (in September at Morgan Creek), the Canadian National Championships for Master Bowling (June, at Scottsdale Lanes) and Canadian Youth and Open Chess Championships (July, Sheraton hotel in Guildford).
