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The club, coming off a dazzling 2025 campaign but with financial viability questions remaining, opens the regular season Saturday at B.C. Place, playing host to Real Salt Lake
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Published Feb 19, 2026 • 6 minute read
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Vancouver Whitecaps’ Thomas Muller (13) celebrates his goal against the Philadelphia Union, with Vancouver Whitecaps’ Giuseppe Bovalina (27) during the second half of an MLS soccer match in Vancouver, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS /Ethan CairnsArticle content
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In the end, we will be able to gauge this Vancouver Whitecaps season on how much Axel Schuster is asked to speak about the standings and how much he’s asked to speak about the balance sheet.
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The Whitecaps open the MLS regular season Saturday at B.C. Place, playing host to Real Salt Lake. They set a plethora of club records last year, with the most notable being shortest-ever off-season — the Whitecaps were playing in the MLS Cup 2025 finale a mere 76 days ago, losing 3-1 to Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami CF in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 6.
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Schuster, who is the Whitecaps’ sporting director, has managed to keep the core of the roster together, with precious few changes. The Whitecaps look like a contender once more. They are No. 3 in the MLS league-produced power rankings to begin the campaign, trailing Inter Miami and LAFC, respectively.
Schuster is also the club’s CEO, putting him in charge of the Whitecaps’ business side. That’s a more complex conversation.
The Whitecaps owners, led by Greg Kerfoot, announced on Dec. 13, 2024 that the club was up for sale. If you’re keeping score at home, that was 434 days ago, and there are no signs of a resolution.
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Schuster has been adamant throughout that the master plan is to remain in Vancouver, and Kerfoot will stay on if new investors will come on board. Along the way, Schuster and MLS commissioner Don Garber have said repeatedly that the team can’t make the business model work as a tenant at provincially owned B.C. Place — Garber’s all-time favourite word might be “untenable” — and the Whitecaps and the City of Vancouver entered an agreement on Dec. 11 to negotiate through 2026 on a new stadium and entertainment district at Hastings Park.
That story has gone quiet for the time being, and Schuster said in a media call on Feb. 5 that the club had signed a one-year deal to play out of B.C. Place this season. PavCo, which is the Crown corporation that operates the dome, will give the estimated $1.5 million the building makes off soccer back to the Whitecaps as part of the deal.
Thomas Müller of Vancouver Whitecaps FC is checked on by teammates during the conference semifinal against Los Angeles Football Club at B.C. Place Nov. 22. Axel Schuster and MLS commissioner Don Garber have said repeatedly that the team can’t make the business model work as a tenant at provincially owned B.C. Place. Photo by Rich Lam /Getty Images
Schuster initially said that the province’s offer “isn’t the game changer that is needed for long-term sustainability,” but walked that back days later, calling it “one step to a solution,” before adding, “I think it needs 25 to 30 more of these little steps, or it needs a few big steps to really get into safe water.”
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This Whitecaps’ season has a chance to be magical. It has a chance to be messy. It could be both at the same time.
Here’s a look ahead. You can find the Whitecaps schedule here.
FIVE STORYLINES TO WATCH
IS THIS THE LAST YEAR FOR THE WHITECAPS IN VANCOUVER?
As long as there’s no long-term deal on the books to stay the option to sell to an American owner, the team is in play.
The MLS is at 30 teams. There’s a school of thought that they might expand to 32 at some point, but likely won’t go past that. And with Forbes this week listing five MLS clubs with valuations of at least $1 billion — up from three teams last year and with Inter Miami’s $1.35 billion leading the way this time around — there could be a deep-pocketed group out there who sees the league as a growing enterprise and would rather buy an existing club and relocate it than pay an expansion fee to get one.
San Diego FC, which debuted last year, were the latest expansion team and they paid a $500 million fee to join MLS. Forbes this week listed the Whitecaps at a $445 million valuation, which was No. 29 in the league. Only CF Montreal, at $440 million, was lower.
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These valuation exercises are just guesses. The Whitecaps are truly worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them. But, for this case, we’ll take the Forbes’ math at face value. They state that they “examined recent transaction data, reviewed publicly available financial information and spoke to more than 60 team executives, owners, investment bankers and industry insiders” to come up with their MLS team numbers, but also made it clear that “all published figures are Forbes estimates.”
They had the Whitecaps bringing in $46 million in revenue last season. By contrast, Forbes had Inter Miami bringing in $200 million.
Schuster has shied away from saying how much money the Whitecaps are losing per year, but has maintained the club is $40 million in revenue behind teams in the middle of the pack in that category.
It’s possible to read too much into the fact that the Whitecaps inked only a one-year extension with PavCo. The FIFA World Cup taking over the building for so much of the summer complicates matters.
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But it’s clear that it is going to take a multi-pronged approach to have a chance to make things work here. There’s talk about finding a title sponsor for B.C. Place and the Whitecaps getting a share of that. They will need to find other support from the corporate community, too.
Ali Ahmed of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC runs with the ball during the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Final match between Inter Miami CF and Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Chase Stadium on December 06, 2025 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Midfielder Ahmed went to Norwich City on a transfer. Photo by Elsa /Getty Images
HOW GOOD COULD THIS TEAM BE THIS SEASON?
Midfielder Ali Ahmed went to Norwich City on a transfer, forward Jayden Nelson was traded to Austin FC, and forward Daniel Rios signed with CF Montreal as a free agent, but the majority of the team that tallied club records in MLS regular-season play for wins (18), goals scored (66), and goal difference (plus-28) is back.
And the Whitecaps are slated to get a full season out of Thomas Müller, the midfielder who joined the Whitecaps in August after a storied 25-year career with Bayern Munich.
Müller is 36, but looked like he still has plenty of tread left on the tires last season with Vancouver. He had seven goals in seven regular season games.
Newcomers of note for Vancouver include forward Bruno Caicedo, a 21-year-old from Ecuador who Schuster pegged as a “threat in transition,” when he was acquired via transfer from Ecuadorian club Barcelona SC, and forward Cheikh Sabaly, a 26-year-old from Senegal that Schuster called an “athletic, dynamic attacking player” when he was brought in with a transfer from French side FC Metz.
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For what it’s worth, the MLS website had 15 insiders predict the 2026 MLS Cup finalists, and the Whitecaps didn’t receive a single vote. Ten folks picked Inter Miami to repeat as champions, while another three had them losing in the championship match. The Whitecaps did receive a single vote to win the regular season crown, though.
HOW MUCH CAN A FULL YEAR OF MÜLLER HELP THE BRAND?
Müller’s soccer skills are well documented. He’s also a one-man marketing firm, with his outgoing personality shining through on social media. He has his own website. He brings eyeball to the product, and seems to be more than willing to lean into the aspect.
“I’m ‘present’ everywhere I am. That’s how I live my life,” he told Postmedia last year.
He’ll be crucial both on and off the pitch this year for Vancouver.
HOW MUCH WILL RYAN GAULD PLAY?
The Whitecaps had massive success on the pitch last year, but it’s not like everything fell in place for them along the way. That includes the fact that Gauld, the team’s celebrated captain, made just 15 appearances and five starts due to left knee trouble.
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The club then announced Jan. 27 that the 30-year-old midfielder had undergone a successful arthroscopic debridement procedure on that same knee, but the hope is that he will return to the lineup sometime in April.
“Following recent consultation with a specialist, everyone agreed that this was the best course of action at this time. We will continue to closely monitor his ongoing recovery,” Schuster said then.
WHAT COULD THE WORLD CUP MEAN TO THE WHITECAPS BUSINESS?
The MLS season pauses May 25 to July 16 to coincide with the World Cup. B.C. Place gets seven games, including a pair of group stage matches for the Canadian side.
Soccer will be front and centre in the city like it rarely has. The Whitecaps need to pounce on that. They need find ways to parlay that into a benefit for them.
@SteveEwen
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