How the Whitecaps could stay in Vancouver

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Premier David Eby and Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber didn’t talk just this week — they met twice.

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On Thursday, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim revealed to reporters he had been sat next to Garber at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, but Postmedia has learned that sitting on the other side of MLS’s top soccer boss was the premier. It has not previously been reported that Eby had been in attendance so it would seem that Eby entered and exited the congress using a door other than the main entrance that just about every other dignitary used on Thursday.

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A statement from Major League Soccer had called the totality of Garber’s talks this week about the future of the Vancouver Whitecaps as “constructive,” noting that as well as Sim and Eby, he had met with deputy tourism minister Silas Brownsey and PavCo president and CEO Rehana Din.

The league insists it remains focused on finding a solution to keeping the team in Vancouver. In December 2024, the Whitecaps’ owners — Greg Kerfoot, Jeff Mallett, Stephen Luczo and Steve Nash — announced they were looking to sell the team. Over the past five years, a source confirmed, the team’s financial losses have mounted even as ticket sales have surged and on-pitch successes piled up.

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The problem, according to the team, is that costs have escalated while revenues have remained relatively flat. The league as a whole struggles with revenue, with only a handful of clubs understood to be truly profitable — the rest breaking even at best, or, like the Whitecaps, apparently losing scads of money.

Whitecaps CEO Axel Schuster said before the current season that the average MLS club counted about $40 million more in revenue than the Whitecaps. Schuster has never said exactly how much money his club is losing, although in the past it was on the order of $10 million per season, according to a well-placed team source. That number is believed to have grown dramatically.

Bloomberg reported Thursday that since the team joined MLS in 2011, they have lost at least $400 million. A source confirmed to Postmedia a large portion of those losses had come over the past five years alone.

So that brings us to this week and Garber’s meetings with local officials, including the premier.

A source with knowledge of the discussions between the commissioner and the premier this week confirmed that talks were positive. And it makes sense, given the league’s statement on Thursday, which came following generally positive comments from the premier, who posted a video on social media on Wednesday evening vowing to do everything he could to keep the team in Vancouver, and from jobs minister Ravi Kahlon, who indicated Thursday morning he also believed Wednesday’s meeting between Garber and Eby had gone well.

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The meeting, Postmedia understands, was arranged by the Whitecaps themselves. With Garber already coming to town for the FIFA Congress, it only made sense for him to meet with Eby and other key stakeholders.

For the Whitecaps to stay in town, a few things need to happen: First, Garber is coming back in a couple weeks and it is expected that meeting will go into detail on what the Caps and the league think is possible at B.C. Place, compared to how PavCo and the government have been doing things, and whether a deal to allow the Whitecaps to manage the stadium can be struck. The idea has been discussed during past discussions between the team and the government, although as Kahlon made clear to Postmedia this week, the team has never tabled a formal proposal.

Without a doubt, the team and the league would like to secure an stadium naming rights deal, which would be worth millions per year. BMO sponsors BMO Field in Toronto and has done so since the stadium opened in 2007. The value of the current sponsorship isn’t known, but the previous deal signed in 2016 was believed to be worth $4 million US per season for the stadium name and branding on the team’s jerseys.

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The Whitecaps’ jersey sponsor is currently Telus.

More comprehensive food and beverage sponsorships would also be a target, looking to market those already available at the stadium more broadly as the official “such and such” of the Whitecaps.

If a deal to manage the stadium is struck, that would buy the Whitecaps time to build a stadium of their own, which continues to be their stated priority. An understanding between the team and the City of Vancouver runs until December. The Whitecaps have the exclusive right to put together a development deal to build a stadium and entertainment district on the grounds of the former Hastings Racecourse.

Thursday’s conversations came even as news leaked out about a specific group in Las Vegas with interest in buying the Whitecaps and moving them to Nevada. As first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Grant Gustavson, a member of a billionaire family, has submitted a bid to the league. But the league is in no rush to consider the offer, several sources confirmed.

In fact, the league was not expecting Gustavson’s name to get out, even after The Athletic reported on Monday that the question of relocation for the Whitecaps had come up at a recent owners’ meeting — both Vegas and Phoenix were discussed as possibilities.

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It’s hardly a surprise that either city would be aired as an option: In 2023 Garber, said openly that the league considered a number of American cities as options for expansion, including Las Vegas, Portland, Detroit, Sacramento and Tampa. San Diego was also on his 2023 list and the Southern California city joined the league last year.

Notably, San Diego paid a hefty fee to join the league: $500 million US. It’s widely believed this is one of many reasons why MLS would prefer the Whitecaps stay put and not take away a potential future expansion alternative.

Nevertheless, it’s clearly no accident that the Vegas possibility leaked out this week. After trying to publicly find an owner for a year and a half, the Whitecaps remain for sale despite the team saying at least 100 groups have expressed interest.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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