Miami Freedom Park ya está en el proceso de la instalación de asientos.Las calles al interior del complejo también empiezan a tomar forma.Todo debe estar listo para el 4 de abril. #InterMiamiCF pic.twitter.com/veXCUvzjE1— José Armando (@Jarm21) February 6, 2026
The funniest part of the bid documents was having LAFC's stadium, which was also barely under construction at the time, temporarily converted into the swimming venue. This was because swimming was the most significant sport where LA didn't have a suitable existing venue. As they prepared the bid, they knew the Sports Arena would be demolished, but there was not yet a plan for redevelopment, so the bid committee planned on a temporary swimming facility on the site. Before it got to the IOC vote, LAFC got its stadium approved, and the Olympic people just changed the plan to "We'll temporarily make the soccer stadium the swim venue, somehow." Later there was a plan to take over USC's baseball field and build a big temporary swim venue there, and then finally they settled on a quick conversion of SoFi for swimming. Anyway, the bid documents also suggested at-the-time non-existant soccer venues including what is now Snapdragon Stadium and the the still non-existant Sacramento MLS stadium.
Your perspective is a common one, and my reaction is always, because this isn’t a philosophical issue, it’s a negotiation. So to answer your “why,” it’s because if Vancouver won’t play ball, the Whitecaps think another city will. Raleigh has the Carolina Hurricanes because NC State fans had to have an arena that matched the Dean Dome. We taxpayers (who aren’t State fans) were already getting screwed, so we could offer a pretty awesome deal compared to what Hartford could. Maybe Indianapolis will swoop in and offer a terrific deal to the Whitecaps. Maybe some other city will. That’s what this is really about…the Whitecaps control an asset and they’re looking for the best deal.
For the same reason a dog licks its balls. Because it can. Thanks for making this point; now I don’t have to. There are so many angles to these situations.
In the end, I'm not saying the BC Place can't offer the caps a better deal, or that they shouldn't. But as someone else pointed out, if the Caps get a new deal that is advantageous to them, why wouldn't the local CFL team expect the same? And at some point, PavCo can only afford to sweeten these deals so far. The biggest warning sign for me is that Caps are talking about the need for $40M in new revenue, while BC Place is offering $1.5M. To say they're not in the same ballpark (pun intended) is an understatement. I would hate to see MLS lose a Vancouver franchise. I love the PNW and the long-standing (predating MLS by decades) and organic rivalries that exist between Seattle, Portland and Vancouver. The league would be diminished if a Vancouver franchise is lost. Obviously, despite how revenue has bounced back in Columbus since 2019 and the buiding of a new stadium a couple of years later, MLS was more than willing (Garber was eager and complicit) to kill off a team in Central Ohio due to those terrible "business metrics." I can't imagine they'll be any more flexible with Vancouver.
There's a lot to unpack with the situation in Vancouver. For starters, the Whitecaps need to hire someone or a better someone to handle their public relations. They're currently losing that battle in a rout. PAVCO is not devoid of blame in this situation either. They are a for profit entity that manages the public asset that is BC Place. From the outside it appears that the Caps and PAVCO haven't had much of a partnership through the years. With an actual partnership they'd be able to get creative about adding/creating new revenue streams for the Caps. Again, from the outside, it appears as if PAVCO is simply operating the way they always have. As someone who used to work for one the world's leading food & Facilities/Services management companies, if you do things the way you've always done them someone else will come along and be able to do them better and for less. PAVCO's job is make BC Place an economic driver, and not just simply fill dates to keep the lights on. When the Caps joined MLS in 2011, the economics were vastly different for the league. I've seen on the socials some folks citing the Revs, Sounders, Atlanta and Charlotte as examples of why can't the Caps make BC Place work. For the non-hardcore MLS fans: the owners of those MLS teams own and operate those big NFL Stadiums (the Seahawks owners were/are minority investors in the Sounders?). The Caps have zero ownership in BC Place, they lease it. The rest of the league's teams own and operate their own stadiums, and control nearly all of the revenue streams (both MLS gameday and non-MLS gameday). If one can't see how this puts the Caps at a distinct disadvantage with the rest of the teams they are competing with, I don't know what to tell you. The Whitecaps give BC Place ~20 events a season (I'm a STH'er for Philly, my yearly seats include 20 games). Now there could be more games based on Canadian Championship, CCC, Playoffs, and League's Cup. The BC Lions have 10 guaranteed dates (9 regular season and 1 preseason game). On the one hand I can understand PAVCO being worried about the Caps building their own stadium and leaving BC Place with 20+ dates a year to now fill. It's also possible that PAVCO is worried about losing the BC Lions as well. What's to stop the Caps from making their new stadium able to accomodate the Lions as well? Remember when they announced the agreement for the Caps to negotiate the right to development of the racing ground? The Caps said there and then that they would be privately financing the project if/when approved. Now all of a sudden all the politicians are proclaiming on TV and in media that the public will not be paying for the Caps stadium..... My question is why? The Caps have not to my knowledge asked for public money. At the end of the day the Caps owners need to get in front of a microphone, or at the least release a video message stating what they are doing (in general) and what steps they are currently taking. I fully understand that the majority of business deals are done quietly behind closed doors. The Caps and PAVCO have created a complete mess for themselves.
I think there’s a huge difference between being “at a distinct disadvantage with the rest of the teams they are competing with” and losing $10m a year off of a reportedly $325k a year lease that the team agreed to by negotiating down their cut of game day revenues. I can absolutely see the “disadvantage” as it stands, but if they’re 30th in the league in the ranking of “who has the best stadium situation” it seems odd to have a payroll sitting around top 10 in the league from what I’ve seen. They’re not operating like a team at a disadvantage and probably they should be, and might not be in such a hole if they were. I applaud their ambition to be competitive on the field, of course, but as much as I dislike that “sports is a business” governs so much of the game, we all know it is true and from that perspective having a relatively high payroll seems like bad business. It seems like a “rebuild” with a goal toward being more competitive when they move into their own stadium would be more fiscally responsible than spending fairly big to fill up seats that aren’t going to generate much ROI under the current structure. All-in-all, I appreciate the perspective here from someone with experience in the event management space and agree that Caps seem to be pretty bad at the PR game currently.
Lumen Field was created for the Seahawks and Sounders. It's operated by the Seahawks owned First and Goal. BC Place is a public institution that is rented out for events. It's operated by the Province through PavCo.
There are 30 NFL stadiums: Half use turf, half grass. This weekend, the decision was made to play the Super Bowl on grass. From a medical standpoint, this has become one of the more provocative issues in sports. I sat down with the chief medical officer of the NFL to understand why it matters. There are 30 NFL stadiums: Half use turf, half grass. This weekend, the decision was made to play the Super Bowl on grass. From a medical standpoint, this has become one of the more provocative issues in sports. I sat down with the chief medical officer of the NFL to understand… pic.twitter.com/3ij1emfhom— Dr. Sanjay Gupta (@drsanjaygupta) February 7, 2026
That’s an easy one. 1. “Expect” and “get” are two different things. 2. I don’t know the CFL cities but I know Montreal and Toronto already have teams, so where could the Vancouver CFL team move to and be better off financially? Nowhere in Canada. And the league already tried playing in America, and it didn’t work. The Whitecaps might have leverage if Indianapolis or some other city makes a move. The BC Lions don’t have any leverage.
Caps building a new stadium that potentially could accommodate the Lions does give the Lions some leverage (whether real or not).
Is it out of the realm of possibility that the Lions already have a sweetheart lease and wouldn't care less if the Whitecaps got a bit of a discount for themselves?
BC Place was built for the Whitecaps and Lions. Unfortunately that version of the Caps only got one season before their league collapsed. The difference in Seattle is that the Seahawks have a much more favorable lease for their state-owned stadium, due to the clout of the NFL and Paul Allen, and could leverage that to get the Sounders a good deal as well.
The Seahawks were minority owners in the Sounders when they joined MLS. The teams shared ticketing and marketing departments for much of the Sounders MLS time..
Yes because the Seahawks were able to get a sweetheart lease from their state government, as cities/states are often willing to do to meet NFL teams' demands.
I suspect the Sounders get to retain revenue associated with their matches. Concessions sales etc. The Sounders' 2024 revenue was $83 million, the Whitecaps' revenue was $40 million.
the old to-be-demolished horse track space at Hastings Park North will be leased land and would contain a SSS of about 30K, Hotel, Businesses, the Tauluth First Nations Casino (and they have stated they might be willing to be an investor, alongwith the existing owner, Greg Kerfoot, and some new investors which are waiting in the wings to see what transpires) and possibly other amenities already there- its a large and exciting vision FYI- BC Place Stadium was configured in 1983 for Whitecap soccer and a potential MLB franchise which never happened (but who knows what the future holds)- outside of having turf, the Stadium is first-class - some people have even speculated that the Caps might even take over the running of BC Place Stadium and stay there as we all know, it comes down to money and the Governments (BC and Vancouver City)- certainly, Hastings Park North (owned by the City and about 6 miles from the DT core) would be an exciting new vision for a run-down area of the City
the Whitecaps share very little of the BC Place Stadium revenue (food and drink)- now PAVCO which runs the Stadium for the BC Government are offering that revenue- naming rights money might also be in the mix which could add another $3 mill to the Caps bottom line as a side note, with all the expansion fees from about 16 cities, the Caps have received some of that money, probably in the tens of millions, so one might say that the Caps havent really lost money since 2011 by the end of this year, it will be become a lot clearer of what will happen to the Whitecaps - IMO they will be staying in the City, either at BC Place until 2030 or for decades, or at Hastings Park North SSS starting around 2030
Where does this notion come from? The expansion fees are one time payments to the existing teams in order to compensate them for the smaller cut of the sponsorship and media rights pie. As an example, the previous TV deal ran from 2015-2022 and was $90M per year. The league had 20 teams in 2015. 90/20 = $4.5M / Team. In 2022 the league had grown to 28 teams. 90/28 = $3.2M / team. The same goes for the Adidas Deal, the deals with Continental Tire, Heineken, etc. Thoise deals aren't increasing each time a team is added. Plus, the costs of operating a MLS team have gone up considerably since 2011 as well.
This is where I don't think the league will be as upset about losing the Vancouver team as the fans will. I think MLS figured out in 2020 just how fraught a cross border league can be, and how much of a business risk the Canadian teams are. If the Whitecaps and CF Montreal moved to US cities, I don't think anyone in the main office would shed a tear. Toronto is a different story, but at that point, it would be hard to argue the necessity of a league for both the United States and Canada.