Vancouver Whitecaps make bid to run BC Place

Could BC Place be the Vancouver Whitecaps’ long-term home after all?

The Whitecaps have made a proposal to take over management of their home stadium from PavCo, reports The Province and AFTN, despite no indication that they have stopped searching for alternate stadium solutions in the city.

PavCo is the British Columbian crown corporation that currently runs the stadium, which is seen as one of the biggest roadblocks to keeping the Whitecaps in the city long-term. The Whitecaps face a severe lack of matchday revenue and stadium availability, and relocation rumours have been swirling for months, with Las Vegas most commonly reported, amid the Whitecaps’ troubles and pending sale.

The Whitecaps’ argument all along has been that they are near the top of Major League Soccer in terms of attendance, but PavCo taking a lot of the revenue gives them a competitive disadvantage, and has killed any potential interest from potential buyers. The organization agreed to give the Whitecaps matchday revenue in April, handing the Whitecaps franchise up to $1.5 million annually, but that is still not enough.

The club’s proposal would see the team operate the stadium and give PavCo a share of the revenue. That is similar to the agreement at Toronto FC’s BMO Field, where the city owns the stadium but Toronto FC and Toronto Argonauts owner Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment operates it and takes the revenue associated with their events.

The Whitecaps believe this would give them even more revenue, through things like controlling what can be sold at matches, with The Province using beer sales as the example. They report that tenants can only sell about 10 percent of the beer at the stadium than would be possible if the Whitecaps could control it, which would also open up room for more lucrative partnerships such as being the team’s “official beer”.

With MLS switching to a winter schedule next year, The Province also speculated that BC Place, which is also used by the Canadian Football League’s BC Lions, could be used for more summer concerts and events than it currently can during the MLS and CFL seasons.

The Caps have been up for sale for 19 months, and their current stadium situation is untenable. The club is not the primary tenant, meaning they often have to settle for when dates are free for home games. The embarassment of having to play a Concacaf Champions Cup match at Starlight Stadium on Vancouver Island in 2024 due to a scheduling conflict with the BC Home and Garden Show was the pinnacle of that.

The team and Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber have said the only way to secure the team’s future in Vancouver is for the MLS club to build its own stadium, but operating the existing stadium would be an effective solution in the short term at the very least.

Garber has been more positive about the future recently, with Vancouver native and Conacaf president Victor Montagliani also getting involved while in town for the World Cup.

Tags: