Vancouver has a rather fickle fan base (so do most markets) so you pretty much have to make the playoffs every year or interest drops like a rock.
I've always wondered about this because I've never viewed this market as a "stay away in droves" fan base when the product is mediocre. I think enough people will keep showing up partly because this is the highest level pro soccer league in North America and that has some level of cachet.
and this is what the owners are counting on- they would do well to remember the adage- dont bite the hand that feeds you i believe that MLS has turned the page towards the owners willing to spend and those owners wanting to keep the budgets low or in vancouver's case, lower than in 2017- owners'- at their own expense- can now spend an extra $2.8 million USD on player salaries- pariety- a hallmark of the MLS- is beginning to end and we are entering the elite spenders and the mediocre and penny pinchers MLS 3.0 starts in 2018- we will fall into the bottom tier of spending and the results will reflect that by august
Whitecaps newest interest in MF - jordon mutch: nothing too exciting- sounds like another reclamation project- a DMF and depth player, at best- when will this madness STOP?? Years Team Apps (Gls) 2008–2012 Birmingham City 24 (2) 2009–2010 → Hereford United (loan) 3 (0) 2010 → Doncaster Rovers (loan) 17 (2) 2010–2011 → Watford (loan) 23 (5) 2012–2014 Cardiff City 57 (7) 2014–2015 Queens Park Rangers 9 (0) 2015– Crystal Palace 31 (0) 2017 → Reading (loan) 9 (1) now if the Caps signed the available Lee Nguyen, then i would feel a buzz- martin rennie foolishly sent him packing to the NE Rev for a very minor twitter comment and lee turned out to be a first rate AMF, something we desperately need, especially since yordy reyna's fiasco in peru is not over
Madness? It is genius I tell ya, shear genius my man. /sarc Agree on Lee Nguyen. Dumbest thing the Caps did (I don't think it was just Rennie but he went along with it). And don't get me started on Gersh being sent to NE as well. I swear sometimes that Vancouver is trying to make NE good.
with the peru police asking for charges to be laid against reyna for lying about the girl's death, the AMF is mighty weak- Nguyen would be a very good addition, but i dont see the Caps willing to sign his contract of $500 000, albeit, it could be paid by MLS and TAM unless robo gives the green light to let davies play to his strengths, but i dont think the head coach is any brilliant attacking tactician to let that happen- he kept alphonso playing as a DMF the last 2 months after being the top rookie and in the top 11 players at last summer's gold cup- davies was a shell of himself after and it wasntt only due to fatique- robo stifled his offensive talents (much like he did with the departed bolanos and rivero IMO) BTW- gershon has been released by the Rev- we dont need another DMF
the Whitecaps are lucky to have such a terrific and loyal fan base- how long they continue after seeing the playoff games vs seattle and if it continues in 2018 will be interesting- i have been a loyal STH since 1978, but i am getting tired of the cheap defensive team we are becoming- robo better hope that kamara, blondell and techera can gel- unleashing the talent of davies would make him a genius
IIRC they moved Koffie because it looked like they weren't likely to re-sign him once the final year of his deal was done and he had overseas ambitions. But I also thought they dropped his (relatively) high contract to pay up for other guys, like Techera, and they felt that they had the central midfield incumbents to cover Koffie. IMO that proved to be wrong because Laba was never as good without Koffie as his partner (that's why I never was that big a fan of the retired Jacobson) and finally they admitted as such by bringing in Koffie-like replacements (Tchani, Nosa). And so it goes even now: Barnes was a bust, had one year left on his DP hit deal, so was offloaded to Orlando in return for a guy (Shea) on a DP deal...but for another year longer. That's not bang for buck.
koffie is in sweden; shea wont be anymore than he was last year and will never be the impact player as he was in 2014 as MLS has got much better for robo to state that the player salary budget will be lower than last year, when almost every other team is spending more, is pure folly- maybe he has to tow the owners' line- lenarduzzi foolishly stated about 1 year ago that robo can have more money to get better players- he's trying to hoodwink the supporters- it wasnt true then and its not true now- most of the players' salaries will be paid by MLS and TAM after 40 years of being a whitecap supporter, my enthusiasm and belief are waning- i will be going to less games this year
3rd new jersey in the last 3 years first, the downright ugly brown second, the rain city- rather than show the beauty of vancouver, the club foolishly decides to do a raining jersey both have been marketing failures which i predicted- could have just asked me for free and avoid the embarrassment of a useless campaign the new jersey is good- https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/02/05/vancouver-whitecaps-unveil-new-jersey-2018-season
Looks like a bunch of Star Wars Tie fighters in formation I'm boring. I liked the basic blue they first had.
I haven't bought a new shirt since the 2011 version. I like this one even though the colors don't really fit with the former club colors. I will pick this one up for sure. After the major flop of the brown one and the rain one, they will probably do well with this. I think if a club puts out a new shirt every season, they sell less because there is minimal anticipation and most people won't pay 120 bucks a year for a new shirt. If they did one every 3 seasons I think more people would buy regularly, that is my thought. I am hoping next year is an actual 1979 retro as its the 40th of the soccer bowl.
Whitecaps don't have many sources of revenue without a stadium/parking so stuff like selling jerseys is important. They can't afford to bomb like with the brown and rain jersey.
Sponsors-supporters of the Whitecaps: https://www.whitecapsfc.com/club/partners https://www.whitecapsfc.com/post/2018/02/07/whitecaps-fc-announce-multi-year-partnership-ford its an extensive list- just wondering what the $$$ figures are
latest rumor: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...ouver-whitecaps-fc-interested-darwin-quintero quote- AS USA reported on Thursday that two Canadian clubs, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, are interested in adding Quintero. According to the report, Toronto have offered $5 million for Quintero, while Vancouver are mulling an offer for the player. i would be downright flabberghasted if the Caps were ever willing to pay more than $5 mill USD millions to get this player- and BTW, do we really need another forward as badly as an AMF, especially if yordy reyna has to go back to peru ? its interesting to note, however, that brek shea, a DP at over $700 K, has had his salary TAMed down so he is no longer classified as a DP which leaves only 1 DP- kamara- MLS allows for 3 DPs, plus a bonus- at owner cost- of an extra $2.8 mill USD to acquire another high quality player(s) if TFC gets another high quality DP, i think i will scream at the riches they already have, the richest being an ambitious ownership group
That was expected to use TAM to buy Shea down below DP level. First they traded Barnes for Shea which gave the Caps a cheaper DP. Then, they bought Shea down below which opens another DP slot. I think Shea can be useful out wide (he was never a forward) so over the long-term, not a bad piece of business, particularly if they fill the DP slot with quality.
quintero's salary in Mexico is almost $2.6 mill USD- he would be the Caps largest salary player EVER- it wont happen- it would take in the neighborhood of $7.5- 8 mill USD to purchase him and pay his salary for the first year- when pigs fly!! and is he really worth the money and what the Caps really need to be a playful contender in the West ????? Full name Carlos Darwin Quintero Villalba[1] Date of birth 19 September 1987 (age 30) Place of birth Tumaco, Colombia Height 1.69 m (5 ft 6 1⁄2 in)[1] Playing position Forward Club information Current team América Number 31 Youth career 2004–2005 Deportes Tolima Senior career* Years Team Apps (Gls) 2006–2007 Deportes Tolima 55 (24) 2007–2008 Krylia Sovetov 11 (1) 2008 Deportivo Pereira 34 (17) 2009–2014 Santos Laguna 187 (50) 2014–2018 América 97 (17) National team‡ 2008–2012 Colombia 14 (1)
a striker getting a goal every +5 games in mexico doesnt seem worth the money- but HEY, TFC have the pockets
I think moving his contract to another club would be a better piece of business because you are still using valuable resources to pay down his overpriced contract. It keeps you from buying better role playing back ups in other positions. Unfortunately, I'm biased here because I've never been a Shea fan, even from his (over-hyped) Dallas days
i dont see any other MLS team taking on brek shea's trade cost and his salary- he simply doesnt bring enough to the game to make any consistent impact, especially for a salary of over $$700 000 (thats hard to say!!)- MLS has bypassed him (as it did with mattias laba) as we have seen with a lot of teams' turnovers over the past 2 years- better, quicker and younger players are coming to MLS in ever increasing numbers- after shea contracts runs out this season, he will not be picked up on an option year, nor will another team take him unless his is willing to take a huge paycut well below $200 000- probably finish his career in a league like the USL and maybe he can mentor the up and comers getting brek for giles barnes was a trade of mutual convenience and comparable salary with neither side getting a real benefit PS if yordy reyna isnt injured and isnt back in peru, then he came into camp out of shape and that doesnt bode well for 2018- again, his life style/off-field behaviors are catching up with him
Except that Shea's contract was for a year longer. The club tried to mitigate a bad piece of business in taking on Barnes and are still paying for it this year, regardless of how some want to spin it.