{"id":653314,"date":"2026-05-07T08:07:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/653314\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T08:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:07:23","slug":"local-group-planning-to-make-bid-to-buy-vancouver-whitecaps-says-jobs-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/653314\/","title":{"rendered":"Local group planning to make bid to buy Vancouver Whitecaps, says jobs minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>B.C.\u2019s jobs minister says a local group is planning to make a bid to buy the Vancouver Whitecaps.<\/p>\n<p>Ravi Kahlon said Wednesday the government was approached by an interested group, but he isn\u2019t saying who is behind it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just had a group that\u2019s reached out to us that has been organizing apparently for a few weeks to put a bid in for the Whitecaps,\u201d Kahlon said.<\/p>\n<p>He says he doesn\u2019t have any further details to share, other than there is a \u201cgroup of business leaders that have come together to try to keep the team here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" data-id=\"4429830\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Whitecaps-fans-5-1024x538.png\" alt=\"Fans of the Vancouver Whitecaps rally to save the team. \" class=\"wp-image-4429830\"  \/>Fans of the Vancouver Whitecaps rally to save the team. (CityNews Image)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"498\" data-id=\"4429831\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Whitecaps-fans-1024x498.png\" alt=\"Fans of the Vancouver Whitecaps rally to save the team.\" class=\"wp-image-4429831\"  \/>Fans of the Vancouver Whitecaps rally to save the team. (CityNews Image)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll leave it to the group to share that information when they\u2019re ready, but they do seem serious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the team is for sale and a local group wants to perhaps move in, I think that\u2019s a positive development for Whitecaps fans and, of course, for the province.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked if the province would be willing to help a local bid for the team, Kahlon said there have been no requests for this but didn\u2019t say whether or not this would be an option.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll we know is that there\u2019s a bid group that\u2019s interested, and they\u2019re doing their due diligence, and they\u2019ll be sharing that publicly very soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of anxiety amongst Whitecaps fans that they want to see a local proponent come forward. I think this might be a positive development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He wasn\u2019t able to provide further details about the viability or legitimacy of the bid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll have to see the full package when they\u2019ve put it together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bid so far seems interesting. It seems like it\u2019s grounded in a plan to keep the team here, and that\u2019s all I can share at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The future of Vancouver\u2019s MLS team has been uncertain ever since a Las Vegas group led by billionaire business leader Grant Gustavson said last week it had submitted a bid to purchase the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 With files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"505\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Whitecaps-fans-4-1024x505.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" ratio=\"16x9\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tFans of the Vancouver Whitecaps rally to save the team. (CityNews Image) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"B.C.\u2019s jobs minister says a local group is planning to make a bid to buy the Vancouver Whitecaps.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-653314","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\/653314","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=653314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}