{"id":630745,"date":"2026-04-26T23:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/630745\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T23:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:26:09","slug":"relocation-fears-spur-save-the-caps-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/630745\/","title":{"rendered":"Relocation fears spur &#8216;Save the Caps&#8217; push"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of diehard Vancouver Whitecaps fans made it known on Saturday that if Vancouver\u2019s MLS franchise leaves town, it\u2019s not due to a lack of support.<\/p>\n<p>Fans rallied in front of BC Place before the home match against the Colorado Rapids.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Whitecaps mean everything. It means community, it means friendship. It would be devastating if it were relocated to the US,\u201d said one fan.<\/p>\n<p>Rumours about relocation have been gaining traction in recent months, with <a href=\"https:\/\/vancouver.citynews.ca\/2026\/02\/01\/whitecaps-mls-not-optimistic-about-future-in-vancouver\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">MLS officials making it clear that the Whitecaps stadium situation is untenable<\/a> and the team is still up for sale.<\/p>\n<p>While a <a href=\"https:\/\/vancouver.citynews.ca\/2025\/12\/11\/city-of-vancouver-whitecaps-announcement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">memorandum of understanding was signed with the City of Vancouver in December last year<\/a> that created a path towards building a new stadium, something that could help ensure the team doesn\u2019t leave for greener pastures.<\/p>\n<p>The root of the problem is that the team is only a temporary tenant at BC Place and does not own its own stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The Whitecaps are playing there on a one-year deal.<\/p>\n<p>This instability is leading the team\u2019s loudest and proudest supporters to start a campaign calling for the team to stay where it belongs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Whitecaps have been around, in some form, for over 50 years,\u201d said Kevin Clark, vice president of the Vancouver Southsiders.<\/p>\n<p>Vancouver Whitecaps top in Western Conference<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo kind of just lose that on the whim of some guy with money that wants to make more money would just be a travesty. We don\u2019t want to be the next Grizzlies,\u201d he added, referring to the National Basketball Association (NBA) team, the Vancouver Grizzlies, which was sold to American billionaire Bill Laurie in 2000 and relocated to Memphis.<\/p>\n<p>The Southsiders are the Whitecaps most dedicated supporters, and they hope their Save the Caps campaign can prove to prospective new ownership that the culture around the team makes Vancouver a viable market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Whitecaps are Vancouver, and this march is going to be our statement to that and to show to anybody watching that, looking at the Whitecaps as a potential investment for them, that this is the right place for the Whitecaps,\u201d Clark explained.<\/p>\n<p>The soccer team has regularly drawn more than 20,000 fans to home games and is at the top of the MLS standings again <a href=\"https:\/\/vancouver.citynews.ca\/2025\/12\/06\/mls-vancouver-whitecaps-lose-inter-miami\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">after losing the league\u2019s championship last season to Lionel Messi\u2019s Inter Miami.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The fans are hoping their support will make it clear that the team\u2019s home will always be in Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1024\" height=\"451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-26-145955-1024x451.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" ratio=\"16x9\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tRelocation fears spur &#8216;Save the Whitecaps&#8217; push in Vancouver. (CityNews) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of diehard Vancouver Whitecaps fans made it known on Saturday that if Vancouver\u2019s MLS franchise leaves town,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-630745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}