"Football is a balancing act between business and culture." - Tim Vickery
This?
Or This?
That might be the question one might ask after reading this:
"… The MLS commissioner will hold a press conference Wednesday afternoon on the Exhibition grounds, and judging from the smiles seen from the league dignitaries on Tuesday, expect some positive news over adding a second Canadian franchise at some point."
So perhaps we will know more this afternoon. Traditionally the All Star Game and MLS Cup weeks have been used for the league to announce or hint at expansion plans.
Couple that
with this story as well as
our earlier rumor along the same lines and perhaps we will hear some news about Vancouver.
According to this article on Goal the NY Times Goal blog....
“I’ve been a fan of the team since I was six,” Nash said of the Whitecaps. “I haven’t invested money yet, more like human capital. It’s a spectacular city. We’re really optimistic and we’re hoping to have some good news at the M.L.S. All-Star game in Toronto.”
Steve Nash's brother Martin plays for the Vancouver Whitecaps.
The Commissioner Speaks, again. This time on Vancouver. Here is an excerpt:
"We believe Vancouver is a potential market for a future Major League Soccer expansion team. There is no doubt the market for professional soccer exists in Vancouver, as we saw last November when nearly 50,000 fans attended the exhibition match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Whitecaps.
"We understand the newly renovated BC Place Stadium will be a world-class facility. We look forward to learning more about the proposed renovations so that we may determine whether BC Place can serve as an interim venue for an MLS team pending the construction of a soccer-specific stadium.
Go here to read more.
File this under, been there, done that, not likely to happen.
According to this story, the Vancouver Whitecaps want to rush into MLS but without a soccer specific stadium, which would mean they would be playing here:
Jim Jamieson, The Province
Published: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Concerned about being shut out of the dwindling prospects for a Major League Soccer expansion franchise, the Vancouver Whitecaps have opened the door a crack to the possibility of playing at a revamped B.C. Place Stadium -- on an interim basis.
Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said Tuesday the club is still 100 per cent committed to building a soccer-specific, natural grass stadium on the Vancouver waterfront, but would consider B.C. Place as a temporary venue if major renos are announced shortly as expected.
"Our priority is still the waterfront stadium, but given that it's taking as long as it has, we need to have alternatives if the opportunity to move to a higher level is available," said Lenarduzzi.
"It would be a short-term solution, as we're looking at the waterfront stadium being our permanent solution but of course we're mired in that process right now."
The Whitecaps have been fighting their way through red tape and negotiations with local and federal government since owner Greg Kerfoot purchased land on the waterfront adjacent to Gastown in 2005."
Hello and welcome to 1998.
Which is why the league will likely look elsewhere (Portland, Montreal, New York City, Miami). MLS Commissioner Don Garber has made it clear that any new clubs will have to begin play in a soccer-specific stadium. He called it the Toronto model, and it seems to work. Seattle was allowed in because a) Qwest Field was built partially on the promise that MLS would come and in many ways it is actually a large soccer specific stadium. This BC dome clearly is not.
This comes to us courtesy of the Vancouver Sun.
Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sen. Larry Campbell is willing to wade into Vancouver's waterfront soccer stadium standoff, which is great news on two levels.
If Campbell's political and mediation skills fail to break the bitter impasse between the Vancouver Port Authority and Vancouver Whitecaps, his background as a coroner will qualify him for the post-mortem on what would be one of the most embarrassing development collapses in the city's history.
Five years after Campbell, then Vancouver's mayor, first encouraged Kerfoot to build a downtown stadium, a shovel has yet to be sunk into the ground, although there should be a few people hit over the head with one.
More here.
If one were into betting (and we are), we'd suggest that when looking for a future geographic rival to the newly promoted Seattle Sounders FC they look towards Portland rather than north to Vancouver as it seems like the USL-1 Whitecaps new stadium will never get built after years of debate, delay, and obstruction, there is yet more of the same for the 'caps.
This comes to us courtesy Canoe the Canadian media network.
The Vancouver Whitecaps and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority have reached an impasse that threatens the proposed Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium.
The Port's planning and development director Patrick McLaughlin told CKNW radio Wednesday that the sides are "miles apart" in negotiations that would enable the $75 million project to proceed.
Whitecaps' media-shy owner Greg Kerfoot began talks with the City of Vancouver in 2003 to privately fund a soccer stadium near the Pacific Central railway station. Three years later, Kerfoot paid $20 million for the Canadian Pacific Railway railyards behind Waterfront Station on the city's central waterfront. City council gave conditional approval in 2006 for the 15,000-seat stadium, based on the club's ability to make a deal with the federal government-owned port. A proposal to build the stadium atop the SeaBus commuter ferry's Vancouver terminal was scuttled by TransLink, which forced the latest round in talks with the federal-owned port.
More here.
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