So the Whitecaps have been up for sale for a couple of years now. Owners want out.

They play in a provincially owned ground. Its a 50000 seater and will host world cup games this summer. They rent so dont make all the money from the ground, nor benefit from its side uses (gigs etc). This puts them at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the MLS. Despite this they got to the MLS cup final last year and are frontrunners again this year. They are also one of the best supported teams in the MLS. Regularly pulling in 24000 at home games (they use the bottom tier only most games. Unless Messi is coming to town)

The MLS commissioner Don Garber, doesnt like the Whitecaps at BC Place as there's issues for a team who have to share with Canadian Football (like American Football but different) and gigs etc. Nor do they like one of their "franchises" not owning their ground (league actually "own" all the clubs, owners own the rights to that. Yeah.) Plus its an artificial surface (changing for World Cup of course).

There's a memorandum with the city to have a new Whitecaps ground and complex built at the recently closed racecourse. Be a great spot but the team needs new owners who want to STAY in Vancouver.

That is the BIG issue. Any prospective owners buying the MLS franchise rights would have to want to keep the Whitecaps in Vancouver. They could come in and buy the franchise and the rumours are Vegas and Arizona (like please 🙄).

So here is the crunch to my lengthy post. A plea.

A simple request to sign this board and also to share and spread the word. Keep the Whitecaps in Vancouver.

https://savethecaps.com

Thanks for reading!

Signed, as a Toronto FC season ticket holder.

5 hours ago, Council Juice said:

The MLS commissioner Don Garber, doesnt like the Whitecaps at BC Place as there's issues for a team who have to share with Canadian Football (like American Football but different) and gigs etc. Nor do they like one of their "franchises" not owning their ground (league actually "own" all the clubs, owners own the rights to that. Yeah.) Plus its an artificial surface (changing for World Cup of course).

There's a memorandum with the city to have a new Whitecaps ground and complex built at the recently closed racecourse. Be a great spot but the team needs new owners who want to STAY in Vancouver.

At the risk of offending a few folk on P&B ... Signed this as a Toronto FC season ticket holder.

This is all about the money. TFC have the Toronto Argos as tenants as MLSE own both teams, and the city owns the stadium and quite a few teams around the league play in stadiums used for NFL or MLB. The issue seems to be that Vancouver doesn't get any of the profits from the stadium (unlike Toronto) so Garber is less than supportive of them. Garber has done a decent job of expanding MLS and avoiding that issue of teams moving around like they do in other sports.

In the last 20 years I think only San Jose moved (to Houston in 2006) and became Houston Dynamo and then in 2008 they reformed in San Jose and got back into the league. Coincidentally San Jose is who TFC played today!

If Garber wants to continue to grow MLS and for the league to be taken seriously then he has to help the Caps who have been - and this is hard for me to say as a TFC fan - one of the best teams in MLS for the last 2 or 3 years and are again riding high. Losing the Caps is also not good for the development of the Canadian National Team as it removes 1/3 of the development capacity in Canada as MLS has pretty good rules surrounding the provision of academies within MLS. While not a product of Vancouver all the way, Alphonso Davies spent a few years with the Caps and he may well be the best Canadian on display this summer. This is why we need the Caps to stay where they are. The Vancouver Southsiders supporters group are also not a bad bunch really.

9 hours ago, Scotty said:

At the risk of offending a few folk on P&B .

Sorry Scotty, not my cup of tea!

bc

Edited May 3May 3 by big cherly