MLS ready to expand to Vancouver: report
Last Updated: Saturday, March 7, 2009 | 9:00 PM PT
CBC Sports
Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi speaks at a July news conference to announce the club would pursue an MLS expansion franchise. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)Vancouver is on the verge of being awarded an expansion franchise by Major League Soccer, the Globe and Mail reported Saturday.
Two sources requesting anonymity told the Globe and Mail that Vancouver businessman Greg Kerfoot, who owns the Vancouver Whitecaps of the less-prestigious United Soccer League's First Division, was negotiating the final details of an agreement with MLS commissioner Don Garber that could be completed by the end of the month.
The new team, which would replace the existing Whitecaps club and go by the same name, would begin play in 2011, according to the Globe and Mail.
The MLS is planning to expand by two teams, and hopes to announce the successful applicants by March 31.
MLS received seven bids in October, but Montreal, Atlanta and Miami later pulled out. That left Vancouver, Ottawa, Portland, Ore., and St. Louis.
Ottawa's bid is backed by billionaire Senators owner Eugene Melnyk, but city council is having trouble deciding on competing stadium proposals.
The Vancouver bid looks to have an edge in that it is the only one with solid financial backing and a completed stadium plan. The new team would play in B.C. Place Stadium, which will be fitted with a retractable roof.
Vancouver also has a celebrity investor in NBA superstar Steve Nash, who hails from nearby Victoria.
Nash, a two-time most valuable player in the NBA, is a longtime soccer fan and his younger brother Martin currently plays for the Whitecaps.
Sam Sullivan, who was Vancouver's mayor at the time, met with Garber in November to lobby for his city.
Launched in 1996, MLS has grown from an eight-team league to a 14-team operation.
Toronto FC, the first Canadian club in MLS, joined the league in 2007.
MLS will expand to 16 clubs with the addition of a team in Seattle in 2009 and Philadelphia in 2010.
