Vancouver Whitecaps Could Make MLS Jump

The USL champions might be packing up and leaving the league - to join Major League Soccer.

Mar 18, 2009 12:06:02 AM

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The Vancouver Whitecaps of the United Soccer Leagues First Division have announced a news conference for Wednesday. It is expected that they will announce that they will be leaving US-1 to join Major League Soccer in 2011.

The front-runner in the MLS bidding process was long thought to be Miami, but that bid was recently withdrawn. Atlanta also withdrew a bid for economic reasons. Montreal's bid was rejected for not meeting the franchise fee.
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The Vancouver MLS bid has been spearheaded by Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot, NBA star Steve Nash, former Yahoo! Inc. president Jeff Mallett and former Seagate Technology CEO Steve Luczo.

If Vancouver indeed claims one of the two MLS spots available for 2011 expansion, that would leave three teams, Portland, St. Louis and Ottawa battling it out for the final slot.

The Whitecaps are defending USL-1 champions. The club currently plays at Swangard Stadium, but would move to a renovated BC Place Stadium in the spring of 2011. The stadium upgrades scheduled to be put in place include a retractable roof. The Whitecaps would play in the stadium's lower bowl, which would be configured to accommodate around 20,000 fans.

Vancouver would be the second Canadian team in MLS, joining Toronto FC.

Andrea Canales, Goal.com

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