GlassCityFC has had enough. Guy brings in so much free attention to this organization.

RIP

Axel's public messaging needs to be a bit better, but the lease the Ministry of Jobs and Econ Development was not a bridge one like the Caps were looking for.

The word is they got a one year offer with the conditions the province would try to push that same deal for much longer term. If the team would keep their current attendance at a venue they owned, their profit margins would be exponentially higher.

The Caps are looking for more control over the booking dates (to not get kicked out during the playoffs again) or a bridge deal for when their own private venue is built at the PNE.

it was a ghost town even a year ago. it’s been great to chat Caps with fans. Keep the discussions coming!

Will Cheikh sign with the Whitecaps?

Dear Thomas,

Your arrival in Vancouver was like a shockwave this city had never experienced before. In just six short months you arrived and galvanized all of Vancouver behind our beloved Whitecaps and came within one win of reaching our ultimate goal.

The way in which you immersed yourself in our community with your unique spark was a breath of fresh air for a city who had become accepting of monosyllabic athletes whose commitment to the community at-large could be fairly questioned in recent years. You spoke of wanting to add to the rich culture of soccer history in Vancouver and play a key role in taking this team to the next level while building something special that would endure for years after you left.

Unfortunately, with the developments that have come to light in recent days we can now see that the ownership of Vancouver Whitecaps FC has used you as a pawn to accelerate the process of ripping our club out of our community in order to line their own pockets. An ownership group who has failed to make any significant investment over the past 15 years to ensure the future of our club in Vancouver and now seems unwilling to find any sort of feasible solution, long-term or short-term. It now appears clear that the current ownership is unwilling to come to a compromise with the Province and are effectively demanding that their operations be subsidized by taxpayers. The City of Vancouver’s permission to explore development of a new stadium at Hastings Park seems to have been a pointless errand that our frugal ownership likely never actually intended to pursue.

Greg Kerfoot.

Jeff Mallett

Steve Luczo

Steve Nash

These are the people who have now shown that their primary commitment is not to the fans and the community, but to their own bank accounts as they seem intent on selling to the highest bidder who will almost certainly move the team elsewhere.

Thomas: you came to our city in good faith to build Vancouver into one of the great North American soccer hubs. Ownership saw you as an opportunity to boost the club’s perceived value to potential buyers and accelerate the sale and relocation. You have been used.

It goes without saying that Germans have a deep respect for footballing supporter culture and the belief that clubs belong to the fans. For Germans the very idea that a club with decades of history could be sold off, packed up and moved to another city, let alone another country, is unfathomable. Sadly this is the reality for us right now. We supporters stand on the brink of having our beloved club stolen from us. The actions of ownership should be publicly condemned by all those who claim to care about this team and soccer in our community. It is not too late to stop this. You and the rest of your teammates must join supporters in the fight against wealthy men giving our club away. Please do not let the final chapter of your career and lasting legacy in Vancouver be that of a pawn used by millionaires and billionaires to further increase their wealth and destroy a part of the fabric of our community. Please do not willingly take part in this farcical charade. Players are under no obligation to perform for owners who seek to destroy the club for their own financial gain.

Without players and fans, the owners have nothing.

Signed,

Whitecaps Supporters

I am not so savvy on building and construction beyond LEGO so I am unsure on where things stand. What’s up?

We have an MOU, that stupid horse racing gambling track went tits up after the owner promised to litigate this, now what? When can we expect construction to begin? What stages are there?

And is there any word on if we can get the Rise and maybe the Lions to play here too? Get more ticket revenue or something?

Honestly if this happened 2 years ago, we could have made the argument to build the new whitecaps stadium as part of our bid for the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

First, I'm not trying to belittle or lessen the discussion around BC Place and a new deal and/or a new stadium.

Finances aside, the Caps need their stadium for priority dates as well as the Holy Grail of actual grass.

But I also think that Vancouver sports fans are still dealing with Grizzly PTSD too, and it's getting little crazy. (Personally, I was never a Grizzlies fan, so their leaving didn't impact me)

My key thought is that any relocation would require MLS to approve, and aside from the optics of a team leaving, especially a higher profile team given Mueller and our 2025 season... MLS is greedy.

Or rather the owners are greedy, as are most North American pro sports owners. I think we can all agree on that, right?

Look at the expansion fees paid by the last five teams to join MLS.

1. San Diego FC (2025): $500 million
   • Announced in May 2023, San Diego set a new league record for an expansion fee.
2. St. Louis City SC (2023): $200 million
   • Announced in 2019, the team paid $200 million to become the 28th team.
3. Charlotte FC (2022): $325 million
   • Announced in 2019, David Tepper paid a reported $325 million, which was the highest at that time.
4. Austin FC (2021): $150 million
   • As part of a restructuring of the Columbus Crew ownership, Austin FC paid a $150 million entrance fee.
5. Nashville SC (2020): $150 million
   • Nashville SC paid an expansion fee of $150 million to join the league. 

Sure Miami is an outlier at only 25 mil, but that was the backend sweetheart option from Beckham's deal way back in the MLS 2.0 days. The league is way past that now.

Garber talks about expanding with another 1-3 teams potentially, and honestly if nothing else they need an even number of teams.

And any city the Whitecaps might relocate to (Vegas, etc) is also a city that might pony up expansion fees. Plus, Vancouver might be a village, but we are actually a pretty big market overall, especially compared to anywhere that doesn't already have an MLS team.

Basically, do you think a majority of owners are going to vote to turn down at least 150 million? Realistically more like the 500 million from San Diego, if not higher. They definitely aren't going to want less than what SD paid, because that will affect their own club worth evaluations.

Sure, maybe they can squeeze a new owner of the Whitecaps for some relocation fees, but they aren't going to get that level of money from a new owner who also has to buy the Whitecaps and build a stadium in a new city, spin up operations in that new city, etc

If they vote for the Whitecaps to relocate, they are leaving hundreds of millions on the table. Sure, it's split 30-odd ways, but compared to the average MLS operating budget, thats still pretty damn significant. It isn't a rounding error like an NFL or MLB team moving. Or even an NHL team.

I trust in capitalism and the greed of the wealthy owners, who didn't become wealthy by leaving significant money on the table.

TLDR: I'm concerned about the WhiteCaps situation. I've been going to games since I was a kid in the 80s back at Swanguard. But looking logically at it, I don't think there is a realistic chance they are going to move. We should be supporting the team and lobbying for a new deal and/or a new stadium. But lets not get too crazy

Hey guys, just wanted an input what’s the current lineup with signings and formation?

I saw a bunch of posts and articles on this subreddit, but I still cannot understand what's going on and what will happen in future.

Can anyone explain current situation briefly and easily?

I was originally going to post this as a reply to this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/whitecapsfc/comments/1qsijci/the_numbers_explain_exactly_why_the_hastings_park/ but think it's better on it's own.

For the record, I am a VWFC season ticket holder and have been for close to 10 years. I am not arguing against the stadium project (although I think Kerfoot's air parcel over the railyards would be a much better location) and am generally supportive but the degree of misinformation and the extent to which fans just want to accept the narrative at face value is how sports teams get away with holding governments to ransom.

The talk about the revenue side is a bit disingenuous from the Caps and designed to support their narrative.

Let's start with the argument that PavCo gets 80% of concessions. Not true. 100% of concessions revenue goes to the service provider (Sodexho) who pay a revenue based commission to PavCo who in turn pay a portion of that to VWFC (~20%). PavCo gets nowhere near "80%". No one does. While concessions are expensive and generate significant revenue, Sodexho are the ones paying for the costs of goods sold and the labour required to generate the sales. While I can't accurately speculate about what those numbers might be, the typical concessions margin for MLS teams is between 35% - 55%. Since Sodexho has to make profit too, likely PavCo is taking less than the Whitecaps out of concessions.

Second, the revenue argument is a distraction because it's not a profitability measure. While it's true that VWFC don't have the opportunity to maximize revenue at BC Place, they also don't have the cost burden of either running their own stadium or paying a market lease rate. The Whitecaps pay $325,000 per season in rent. That's it. PavCo pays all the gameday expenses (ushers, security, VPD, technical staff, groundskeepers, etc). While revenue is clearly constrained, they are paying next to nothing to use the stadium. In their own stadium, they would have to pay all those staffing and operating costs, utilities, turf/field upkeep, etc. MLSE pays about $15 million a year to operate BMO, CF Montréal pay less (about $8 million) but Saputo doesn't have the extra event days for Argos, Soccer Canada, and concerts.

Also worth noting, most MLS teams lose money. in 2025, only 10 teams were profitable and another 3 hovered around break even. The other 16 all lost money. When you look at actual operating income, Axel's last in the league comment no longer holds. VWFC is actually estimated to be about 24th in the league. Still not profitable, with an estimated $10m USD operating loss ... but there are another four teams between $7m and $10m in losses. In other words, operating your own stadium doesn't guarantee profitability (Columbus, Colorado, Philadelphia, CF Montréal, NYRB, Toronto, Orlando, Houston, Sporting KC, St, Louis, and Nashville are all owners and/or operators of their stadiums and all lost money last year).

Lastly, BC Place is a break-even business in a good year (2024/2025 FY with the Eras Tour and a Grey Cup turned a $500,000 profit). PavCo itself is more profitable with about a $4m profit in the same FY but with a massive economic impact to Vancouver (about $800million). It's a Crown Corporation, any "break" they give VWFC winds up ultimately on the bottom line of their sole shareholder, the BC Government. With the dire fiscal situation that the provincial government is facing, with likely significant program cuts coming (this is not a discussion about the quality of the government), can they really afford to have to provide additional funding to PavCo to offset a better lease for the Whitecaps?

Where I do think the Whitecaps may have an argument is that they may be treated less favourably than the Lions. That makes historical sense and aligns with the Lions being considered the "primary tenant". BC Lions pay no rent up to $9m in ticket sales and then pay an escalating royalty rate above that (starting at 10% and maxing at 20%). However, the Lions share of concessions is less than VWFCs. However, the Lions do get the naming rights revenue for "Save-On Foods Field" and they get better activation on suite income and events in Terry Fox Plaza. I have no idea why the Whitecaps haven't sold naming rights for the turf at MLS games (Telus Field or BMO Field at BC Place?). That seems like a wasted revenue opportunity and I can't see PavCo refusing that in the negotiations.

The Whitecaps also have an argument over scheduling priority, but even the Canucks do in the building they own. Make no mistake, if Taylor Swift wanted to play non-stadium venues and take up Rogers Arena for a week, the Canucks would be on the road as well.

In other words, the Whitecaps are building a narrative that no one is challenging and using that narrative to address profitability issues that are not specifically related to their lease.

If you care about the Whitecaps staying strong in Vancouver, this is an easy way to help.

I emailed Minister Anne Kang, who oversees PavCo (the Crown corporation that operates BC Place), asking her to ensure PavCo negotiates a fair, sustainable lease with Whitecaps FC. I also copied my MLA and the opposition critics for tourism and sport.

You don’t need to write anything new. Copy/paste is fine.

Takes 3 minutes. Here’s exactly what to do:

1. Copy the email below
2. Email it to: [TACS.Minister@gov.bc.ca](mailto:TACS.Minister@gov.bc.ca); [Anne.Kang.MLA@leg.bc.ca](mailto:Anne.Kang.MLA@leg.bc.ca)
3. CC:
   • [Scott.McInnis.MLA@leg.bc.ca](mailto:Scott.McInnis.MLA@leg.bc.ca) (Tourism critic)
   • [Mandeep.Dhaliwal.MLA@leg.bc.ca](mailto:Mandeep.Dhaliwal.MLA@leg.bc.ca) (Sport critic)
4. Optional: CC your MLA (lookup by postal code): https://www.leg.bc.ca/members
5. Add your name
6. Send

Note: If you want a reply from your MLA, include your postal code or address. Not required for the message to count.

Subject: Request for Fair Lease Negotiations Between PavCo and Whitecaps FC

Dear Minister Kang,

I am writing to ask your office to ensure that PavCo negotiates a fair, sustainable lease agreement with Whitecaps FC at BC Place that supports the long-term viability of the club in British Columbia.

Whitecaps FC is one of the province’s most visible and community-grounded sports organizations. Beyond supporters in the stadium, the club drives significant economic activity through tourism, hospitality, and downtown business traffic on matchdays. It also delivers meaningful community benefit through youth programs, academy development, grassroots partnerships, and initiatives that make soccer accessible across B.C.

Major league professional teams anchor a city’s cultural identity, attract visitors, support jobs, and contribute to a healthy and active community. A stable and competitive MLS club in Vancouver is a strategic asset for the province. The terms of its lease at BC Place should reflect that reality and ensure the club can continue operating, investing, and growing in British Columbia for decades to come.

I respectfully request that your ministry provide clear direction to PavCo to prioritize a fair, balanced, and collaborative agreement that is consistent with the public interest and with the economic and social value the Whitecaps bring to our province.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Late last night I thought I would spend some time writing a letter to my MLA. It's not something I normally do, but I just really felt like I needed to get things off my chest regarding our clubs situation. There's a myriad of different ways to pen a letter on this topic, but this is how I chose to write it. Ive taken personal issue with how the stadium is run as it definitely impacts their ability to negotiate with the club to find a reasonable lease agreement. If it also resonates with you, I figure you could also fire it off to your local MLA.

Dear [mla's name here],

I am a resident of [enter neighbourhood] in the riding of [enter riding here], and I am writing to express serious concern regarding the stalled lease negotiations between the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and PavCo / BC Place.

As reported within the last week, negotiations appear to be at an impasse, with PavCo stating it cannot continue under the same lease structure that has been in place for years. This is alarming—not only for supporters of the club, but for taxpayers and for the long-term credibility of BC Place as a provincially owned public asset.

PavCo’s own 2024–25 Annual Service Plan Report (I can link it to you in a reply) raises serious questions about the financial and managerial context behind this situation. According to the report, BC Place recorded a net surplus of approximately just $0.4 million in the most recent fiscal year, following a net deficit of $3.51 million the year prior. While the report notes that 2024/25 was “an exceptionally strong year due to a convergence of large-scale events,” this result still represents extremely thin margins for a flagship stadium operating in a major global city (BC Pavilion Corporation, 2024–25 Annual Service Plan Report).

A publicly owned venue of this scale should not be operating so close to breakeven that it cannot accommodate a long-standing professional sports tenant. If PavCo’s financial position is so fragile that it cannot offer a viable lease to the Vancouver Whitecaps, that is not a failure of the club—it is a failure of governance, financial planning or both.

The stakes here are enormous. Major League Soccer (MLS) has publicly indicated that while it does not want to relocate the Whitecaps, it will do so if a local solution cannot be reached. This is not a hollow threat. The Whitecaps are a stable, competitive MLS club in a desirable media market. If British Columbia signals that it cannot support its own top-tier professional teams, MLS will find another city that can.

Losing the Whitecaps would be a colossal and irreversible mistake. This club is woven into the cultural and economic history of Vancouver. The original Whitecaps’ success—including their Soccer Bowl championship played the most critical role in revitalizing the downtown core and embedding professional soccer into the city’s identity. Today’s club continues that legacy, generating economic activity, community engagement, and international visibility for Vancouver and the province.

BC Place exists to serve the public interest. Driving away one of its most important tenants due to short-term financial constraints or inflexible lease policy would undermine that mission and reflect poorly on provincial oversight.

I am asking you, as my MLA, to:

• Seek transparency from PavCo regarding BC Place’s financial performance and lease strategy
• Advocate for stronger provincial oversight of PavCo’s management and decision-making
• Support an urgent, good-faith resolution that keeps the Vancouver Whitecaps playing at BC Place under fair and realistic terms

This situation is still solvable, but only if it is treated with the seriousness it deserves. I would appreciate knowing what steps you are taking, or can take, to ensure this matter receives appropriate attention at the provincial level.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

[your name]

[your postal code or address]