Vancouver It Is
March 9th, 2009 . 8:57 am . By: Buzz CarrickSo it appears that barring a last minute screw-ups, the Vancouver Whitecaps will be joining MLS as it’s 17th club. I’m on board with that for a couple reasons. 1. I like it sometimes when an existing USL team can move up to MLS rather than building a team from scratch. Not only is there a front office in place that knows the market and knows how to keep a team running in soccer; but there’s also the history, name, colors, jerseys, and fans in place. The Whitecaps have been around 35 years, clearly they can run a business and keep a team going (they’ve been running smoothly, it appears, under current ownership since 2002). 2. Check out that history: 06 and 08 USL titles, four CSL titles, and a NASL title. Are you kidding me? The NASL? Love it. So not only a solid business but a winning organization. Did you know Peter Beardsley used to play for them? They need to put their founding date, 1974, into their logo just to mess with MLS teams. 3. It’s already a complete club with a youth set up and a women’s team in the W-League (also with two titles, 04 and 06) 4. Steve Nash is involved in the ownership group. Don’t under sell the value of a established star from a major sport getting involved. Nash is famous, has money, and more important has clout and legitimacy. Just as long as he doesn’t try and play. 5. Also involved are a rich sports nut, Greg Kerfoot, who owns the current Whitecaps, as well as former Yahoo!’s President, Jeff Mallett (he also owns part of the SF Giants). That’s the piece that’s missing in St Louis. If St Louis had that piece it also would be getting a team. 6. Stadium deal in place. BC Place Stadium is going to be renovated with a retractable roof (grass?) Check out the sweet rendering. Downtown, that’s key.
7. Already has a rivalry with Seattle Sounders. Apparently the announcement might come before the season kicks off. I for one think it’s a great idea. 7 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Awesome! Another positive is the way that the Canadians and promoted USL club of TFC and Seattle respectively have performed in ticket sales.
I do wish Seattle had put their founding date on their logo.
Buzz,
Is BC Place turf or grass? Will that be part of the renovations? That could be a downside.
Buzz, Steve Nash could probably start in our league.
That’s probably not true, but he’s a damn good footie player regardless.
“They need to put their founding date, 1974, into their logo just to mess with MLS teams.”
Yes, definitely. 100% agreement.
Whitecaps, Sounders and Timbers. Let the games begin!
Steve, don’t know on the grass. I’ll look around.
Casey, Nash is a heck of a soccer player and a great athlete. but if he tries to play it will smack of a publicity stunt and will devalue perceived level of competition if he “make the team.” Remember Andrew Shue?
The images on the BC Place site show turf. But maybe after the retractable roof they will go grass. why else have a retractable roof?
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