WC26 volunteer
I finished my last shift. There is a bittersweet ending to this. I waited since it was announced the US would be co hosts to go to a World Cup game. I tried all the ways to go but the ticket prices were outrageous. I saw an opportunity to volunteer and jumped on it. I filled out the application and waited. And waited. And waited. Got a message to come in for a “conversation” that was an interview. Went home and waited.
Months passed and I got notified I was offered a role. Transport. What the hell does that mean? Sooo much time passed again and finally go to a training to learn what I will be doing. I’ll be guiding people to buses from the fan fest. Ok. That’s fine. It’s not as “prestigious” as being at the stadium or on the field for ceremonies, but at least it’s something.
On-site training day arrived. Was told wear comfy shoes we will be walking. Wrong. There was walking from where I parked to a shady spot. Then things were pointed at and we were told the same thing we were at the role specific training. After that I went home.
First shift on day 1 of the tournament and fan fest. Arrived on time. Sat in a tent for an hour. The orange vests (supervisors or leads) were unaware the volunteers shift started so early. The hour was them figuring out what to do. Finally the 15 people for the shift were walked down a long line of fans to act as crowd control. One orange vest to volunteer. An hour later I had no idea where my orange vest lead went. I was trying to answer questions I had no answers too. I was trying to figure things out with ZERO guidance. As someone that works customer service it was disgusting to not know what to tell people. An hour before shift end the orange vest showed up and told me I could go take a lunch. Gee…thanks. Finished the shift and went home. Which is hours from the site. Told myself it was day 1 issues that would be figured out my next shift.
Second shift was a week later. Nothing was figured out or fixed. Now the buses don’t run at their scheduled time so most volunteers are late. I arrived an hour later and was told just go out there and find a spot. Again ZERO direction. Basically stood at the buses to do actual transport stuff for the day. It was a waste. Not many people getting off the buses. It was a short shift so thankful for that. Went home and was the only one on the bus. Found out the bus drivers were given routes but kept getting pulled to go to routes they weren’t trained for. Seems a bit off to me. I get dropped off and the 30 people waiting were told they couldn’t ride the bus as the driver hit their limit of driving and required a break due to their license. Seems like a logistical issue.
Third shift again arrived late due to buses not arriving on time. Tried a different bus stop this time. Got to the site and was told to spread out along a steel railing and keep people from jumping it. That was the shift. Crowd control for people that didn’t try to jump a fence all day. Nobody came by with water. Nobody came by to say, take a lunch. Nothing. I had lunch at the end of the shift and left.
Fourth shift. By far the most fun. Found a spot with other volunteers that were having fun and knew something. Time flew that day. Saw no orange vests. Nobody brought any water. Nobody sent us to lunch. We just eventually went. Walked to the entrance to get food and noticed people leaving the fan fest. Likely due to loading for the game. Sat down to eat and saw a sign saying due to the weather they were closing fan fest. Had no idea anything was happening as my spot was in a normal spot but far from fan fest. Getting ready to leave and we get a message of “clear the site.” What does that mean? Head out and see a storm coming. Try to help direct people but had no direction. Sheltered on a bus as it was close and left when the bus left after sheltering the remainder of the shift.
Fifth shift was altered from morning to evening and told if it doesn’t work just withdraw. So withdrew due to distance and time.
Sixth and final shift. It was the same as the rest. Volunteers asking the same questions. Being told to just go somewhere. But this time a cooler of water was nearby. That’s a first. End of shift got my freebies and left. Side note: was given a ride by a volunteer that was at the stadium. Learned in order to get that you have to say you aren’t flexible on your schedule. So the less free you are the better your role. If you are flexible thinking that might get you into the stadium you’d be wrong.
Overall: keep in my this is how I felt throughout this process. I loved volunteering. Enjoyed meeting the other volunteers and fans. The organization sucked. There was high level stuff but nothing that was boots on the ground organized. I very much felt like as transport we were the absolute rejects. Many I met and spoke with were over qualified and misused for our strengths with this. Many had leadership expertise, marketing, brand policing, customer service, logistics, etc. things useful to running a bigger picture. Instead we were informational stations for fans but not provided the information. We had to figure it out ourselves. I heard of other host cities that were treated great. I heard of others having fun and having leads that cared. Some of ours did but at the end of the day we were bodies. Heard an idea that we could have shown up in the area to checked in on the app, stayed or left, and it would have counted as us being there for a shift. All without working at all. That would have been great. Defeats the purpose but that’s how flawed the system was. There were so many logistical issues and nobody seemed to plan ahead. It was all reactionary. Nothing functions well if you only react to problems that could have had a plan. And yes I know you can’t plan for everything. But this is fifa and last I checked this was far from the first World Cup.
I enjoyed volunteering and being a part of the World Cup. However, there were many parts of feeling like we were at the bottom of the barrel that made me wish I hadn’t. To top that off the volunteer appreciation being planned for a weekday evening sucks when you have a lot of people driving hours to volunteer. Especially single parents. I won’t be rushing back to volunteer for FIFA anytime soon. Thanks for the freebies.