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<\/p>\nThe protest \u2014 held shortly before news of the Las Vegas bid led by businessman Grant Gustavson broke \u2014 saw fans brandish \u201cSave the Caps\u201d signs and sing club chants while wearing the team\u2019s blue-and-white colours. <\/p>\n
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Vancouver resident Zilbershtein said he\u2019s travelled across North America to support the team in cities like Miami and San Diego. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to lose that, you know, that sense of community and just the ability to be able to support a team like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kamran Eshghi, an associate professor in the school of sports administration at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., said the owners likely feel the team can get a better deal in another city that would let the buyers keep stadium profits from things like food and drink sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t have control over so many things that happen within the stadium,\u201d Eshghi said. <\/p>\n
He added that BC Place isn\u2019t designed for just soccer, and Major League Soccer prefers their games to be held within soccer-specific stadiums, where they don\u2019t have to compete for scheduling or revenue. <\/p>\n
While details of the Gustavson bid aren\u2019t public, Eshghi said that Las Vegas could be offering more opportunities, like financial subsidies, that make a move more appealing. <\/p>\n
The Whitecaps are sitting at second place in Major League Soccer\u2019s western conference standings, have a low salary cap and enjoy one of the best attendance records in the league. <\/p>\n
But the team\u2019s owners have been looking to sell since 2024, a decision the owners frame as necessary because of economic challenges surrounding stadium revenue and access. <\/p>\n
British Columbia\u2019s Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon framed it as a cash grab in comments to reporters on Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that the value has gone from $35 million to close to $500 million, and they see an opportunity to cash in on that,\u201d Kahlon said of Vancouver\u2019s current ownership group, which includes Greg Kerfoot, Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett and former NBA star Steve Nash.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we also believe that the MLS owes it to the fans in Vancouver to do whatever they can to keep the team here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team has said that despite its success on the field, it\u2019s at the bottom of the league in revenue.<\/p>\n
Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber said the club\u2019s lease at BC Place Stadium wasn\u2019t sustainable because of restricted revenue from food and beverage sales and less flexibility around scheduling. <\/p>\n
The team signed a memorandum of understanding with the City of Vancouver in December over exploring the possibility of a stadium, and it agreed to a one-year deal with PavCo, the provincial Crown corporation that owns BC Place, in February. <\/p>\n
Whitecaps CEO Axel Schuster said at the time that the lease would not solve the team\u2019s long-term financial viability issues. <\/p>\n
Eshghi said that unless the team gets a good deal from the city or the province that allows them more control over stadium operations, the writing may be on the wall for the Vancouver Whitecaps. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe league owners and the MLS, they will be behind it. They want better valuation, they want more profit, they want soccer-specific stadiums, they want to have better control over the scheduling,\u201d Eshghi said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it is very, very likely that Vancouver Whitecaps will move to another city, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kahlon said the Whitecaps haven\u2019t come forward with a proposal for taking over the lease at BC Place, but added a meeting between Garber and Premier David Eby on Wednesday resulted in an agreement to meet again to find a way for the team to stay in Vancouver. <\/p>\n
The bid seeking to buy the Whitecaps proposes building a privately financed soccer stadium in Las Vegas, with no public funding. <\/p>\n
For Whitecaps fans, the move would be a devastating blow. <\/p>\n
Kaja Antic, a fan from Langley who was at the protest, said Garber doesn\u2019t seem to fully support the Canadian market. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt just kind of feels like he\u2019s trying to push them out of the door,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
She added that she\u2019s built many great friendships during her years following the team. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis team\u2019s been here for 52 years. It\u2019s older than the MLS league itself. I feel like it\u2019s an important marker in B.C. sports history, football, world history,\u201d Antic said. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2026. <\/p>\n
Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The protest \u2014 held shortly before news of the Las Vegas bid led by businessman Grant Gustavson broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-640435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640435","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=640435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}