per Postmedia’s Patrick Johnson.<\/a><\/p>\nMichael McColl of Vancouver-based soccer blog Away from the Numbers was first to report the news. <\/p>\n
MLS commissioner Don Garber said on June 19 that the Whitecaps need to have a new stadium deal to keep the club in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re committed to keeping the team here if we have a viable stadium project,\u201d Garber said, \u201cwhich we don\u2019t have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Financial hurdles have hit the club despite its success on the pitch. BC Place, the Whitecaps\u2019 home since 2011, is government-owned and operated by PavCo, restricting the club from potential revenue streams.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we face the difficult part,\u201d Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said in April. \u201cBC Place is owned and operated by the provincial government. In fact, it\u2019s the only stadium owned and operated by a government found anywhere in the MLS. In order for the team to stay in Vancouver, the Whitecaps and province must sign a bridge deal that will allow BC Place to become viable in the near term while a new stadium can be designed and built.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposal reportedly aims to increase revenue for both the corporation and the club while keeping the Whitecaps in Vancouver as they work towards a new stadium deal.<\/p>\n
The Whitecaps sit atop the Western Conference standings during the MLS\u2019s World Cup break. They reached their first MLS Cup Final in 2025 and have won four consecutive Canadian championships.<\/p>\n
The fan support has reflected that success. The Whitecaps rank eighth among 30 clubs in average attendance this season, and they led the league in attendance during last year\u2019s playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u2014 With files from The Associated Press <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vancouver Whitecaps appear to have a new idea for their stadium issue. Whitecaps management has submitted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-802242","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\/802242","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=802242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}