It might yet be too early to write the obituary for the Vancouver Whitecaps, as rumours swirl of potential buyers for the Major League Soccer club and campaigns organized by fans and businesses to “save the Caps” gather strength.
But amid the swell of hope, emotion and social media blitzes in the fight to keep the franchise from being moved elsewhere, there are a number of cold, hard, dollars-and-cents factors stacked against the club — one of those being, simply, that it’s based in Canada.
If the club — which has been for sale since December 2024 — is moved to Las Vegas, as many fear will happen, it’ll join the line of Canadian pro sports teams to be relocated down south. They include Major League Baseball’s Montreal Expos; the Quebec Nordiques and the first incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League; and the Vancouver Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association.
It is, in fact, 25 years almost to the month since the Grizzlies played their last game in the city before moving to Memphis. It’s easy, then, to appreciate the current fears of many B.C. sports fans of a certain age.
But the Vancouver market faces the same challenges of every other Canadian city that has a sports team in a border-straddling league.
The elephant in the room is, of course, currency. Canadian teams’ expenses are primarily in U.S. dollars, and they operate at the mercy of the exchange rate.
“It can quickly gobble up your revenue and turn into big losses,” says Moshe Lander, a sports economist and senior lecturer in economics at Concordia University in Montreal.
“That’s what led to the Nordiques and the original Jets leaving the country. The Canadian dollar fell below 70 cents, so they ran themselves into financial trouble merely because of Canadian dollar issues, not because of a lack of fan interest.”
In modern sports markets the capacity to generate revenue goes beyond ticket sales, says Lander. Media and advertising revenue are critical components in making money, and here, too, Canadian teams are at a disadvantage.
Canadian media markets “aren’t nearly as juicy” as those in the U.S., where there is simply more competition and bids for media rights escalate accordingly, according to Lander. As for advertisers, the Canadian pool just isn’t as deep.
“How many different arenas have Scotiabank on their marquee, right?” Lander said.
These lower expected returns naturally make Canadian franchises less appealing to potential buyers with deep pockets.
That was made painfully evident in a Whitecaps statement on April 27 — when rumours of relocation began reaching a head — which said the owners had spoken with more than 100 “serious” parties since they put the club up for sale, but “no viable offer has emerged that would keep the club here.”
What’s wrong with BC Place for the Whitecaps?
The Whitecaps have a particular revenue problem with the stadium they play in. B.C. Place is owned by the province of British Columbia via the Crown corporation PavCo. That means the ‘Caps can’t slap an advertiser’s name on the outside, for a start. But it also means they have to share the venue — and associated revenue — with the CFL’s B.C. Lions and an array of events and touring musicians that come through town.
While other MLS teams operate their venues, the Whitecaps’ current deal with B.C. Place means they get only 12 per cent of stadium revenue. The club’s arrangement with the stadium has become “untenable,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said recently, and has undoubtedly spurred the league’s discussion of moving the franchise.
Without owning and controlling their own venue, the Whitecaps have always found it difficult to make money — to the tune of a $40 million shortfall, sporting director Axel Schuster said in February. While the Whitecaps are riding high in this season’s standings so far, they’re second from bottom in the league when it comes to cashflow, Schuster said in December.
The Whitecaps’ restrictive stadium arrangement is unique within the MLS, where other teams either own their stadiums or lease at a nominal rate.
Bruce Firestone, the first owner of the Ottawa Senators franchise, says there’s generally greater acceptance of those kinds of lease deals in the U.S., where the city or state provides the bulk of the investment to build sports arenas.
“You get the public, basically, to build the stadium or the arena and lease to you for, you know, a dollar a year, and you keep all the revenues and, basically, the public has all of the costs.”
Canadian taxpayers and the politicians they vote into office are generally less amenable to the concept, adding to the “uneven playing field” Canadian teams find themselves on when it comes to revenue, Firestone says.
But if Calgary’s planned Scotia Place complex is any indication — with almost three-quarters of its projected $1.22-billion cost split between the city and Alberta government — this sentiment could be starting to change.
In Vancouver, too, sensing public alarm over the Whitecaps’ future, the city and province have stepped in to provide the club with some relief.
Vancouver Whitecaps one step closer to getting their own stadium
The City of Vancouver is already discussing a potential land deal with the club for the former Hastings Park racecourse grounds that would see the development of a soccer-specific stadium and entertainment district.
And earlier this year, the B.C. government signed a lease with the Whitecaps that gives the club as much as $1.5 million from provincial proceeds, according to Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s minister of jobs and economic growth.
And last Wednesday, it appeared that the federal government had also become involved in plans to keep the Whitecaps in Vancouver.
After a private meeting, a joint statement was released by the City of Vancouver, the province of B.C., the federal government and PavCo, along with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations and undisclosed “private partners,” saying only that they were working together “to deliver an even better future for soccer in our city.”
Firestone says one way of helping level the playing field for Canadian teams would be for each league to agree a revenue-sharing model along the lines of the National Football League’s, which allows smaller markets to remain competitive.
The NFL’s arrangement reportedly resulted in a $432.6-million US payment to each league franchise in 2025, which is of particular benefit to small-market teams like the Green Bay Packers, Firestone says.
While the MLB, NHL and MLS can’t compete with the revenue stream of the world’s most lucrative league, they should be sharing more of their collective income with their teams — which would have the added benefit of being in U.S. dollars, he says.
Sports economist explains the business case for keeping the Vancouver Whitecaps in B.C.
In the meantime, for the Whitecaps, the path ahead seems uncertain, and survival looks complex.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, says economist Glen Hodgson, author of Power Play: the Business Economics of Pro Sports, who told CBC’s BC Today “everything is up for negotiation” and a deal can be worked out — especially with governments of different levels involved.
Lander, on the other hand, simply cannot see a future for the team in Vancouver.
“The fact that … nobody’s come forward, saying, ‘I’m interested’ — that’s as much as you need to know,” he said. “If profit-maximizing businesses who are otherwise rich in every aspect of their business say, ‘no thanks’ — there’s no future there.”
