Thomas Muller signing yields Whitecaps ticket-sales boost

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The Vancouver Whitecaps aren’t ready to open up the upper bowl. Not yet, anyway.

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But with ticket sales surging in anticipation of Thomas Müller making his Whitecaps debut at the next home match on Aug. 17 against the Houston Dynamo, there is no doubt that opening up the upper reaches of B.C. Place isn’t impossible.

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That said, with more than a week to still go until Müller is expected to make some kind of debut for the Blue and White, a team source says they are focused on filling the lower bowl before making any decision on opening up the upper reaches of the stadium.

“At this point, we are focused on an exciting packed lower bowl,” the source said.

Whitecaps CEO and sporting director Axel Schuster acknowledged earlier this week that ticket sales for the Aug. 17 game began to surge not long after word started to get out just over two weeks ago that the team was after Müller. It would seem that surge has now extended to games beyond just the next home match.

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The team has rarely opened the upper deck during its 15-season run in Major League Soccer. The Caps hadn’t once sold tickets upstairs before 2023, when they sold tickets to the upper deck for the first time, a November playoff match against Los Angeles FC.

That decision was made just a few days before the match.

In 2024, the team chose before the season to sell tickets in the upper bowl to four games: the home opener, a 50th anniversary celebration game in May against Austin FC, the first visit of Inter Miami — Messi ended up not playing in that game — plus the playoff rematch in August against LAFC.

Selling tickets to the upper bowl is only done with careful consideration — the set costs of expanding capacity aren’t huge, but they aren’t minimal either. It means more staffing, for both security and concessions. And there is a food-sales baseline that needs to be hit.

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There is also the question of atmosphere. Selling seats in the upper bowl means removing some of the sound-reflecting drapes to allow for an unfettered view from above. The draping system that the Whitecaps and rugby sevens have used over the years has been credited with giving B.C. Place a unique auditory atmosphere, something the Caps are unlikely to want to sacrifice for the sake of just a couple thousand fans.

But if demand surges well above what the lower bowl can accommodate — 30,000 give or take, including suites — it will be interesting to watch what the team chooses to do.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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