MLS commissioner says little progress made in keeping Whitecaps in Vancouver

MLS's commissioner indicated not much has changed on the Whitecaps front, with the club up for sale and fans desperate to keep the team in Vancouver.

Major League Soccer’s commissioner indicated not much has changed on the Vancouver Whitecaps front, with the club up for sale and fans desperate to prevent the team from relocating.

“We don’t have the corporate support in Vancouver and in the province,” Don Garber told reporters in Montreal on Thursday.

“There’s very little corporate support and there’s no path to a better solution yet.”

With the club’s future in Vancouver still very much uncertain, members of the Vancouver Southsiders were creating banners reading “Save the ‘Caps” in the back of an East Vancouver brewery Thursday evening.

“People should be still fighting and stuff like we’re doing,” Ciaran Nicoll, the president of the Vancouver Southsiders Whitecaps support group told CTV News. “Still spreading the news and stuff like that. Because it’s not gone one way or another. It’s not over.”

The banners being created with spray paint and stencils were being put together at the request of soccer fans from other countries who want to display the banners during matches at BC Place during the upcoming World Cup.

“Some supporters from Australia, New Zealand, some other countries who are playing in Vancouver reached out to us. They heard about our movement and they want to help out however they can,” Nicoll explained. “They’re planning on taking some banners in with them, you know, just representing us.”

Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon, who has been the provincial government’s face during talks with Major League Soccer about the Whitecaps’ future in Vancouver, was unavailable for an interview, but sent a statement.

“We are working within a positive framework to strengthen the club’s long-term future,” Kahlon said. “This includes improving the game-day economic model, exploring new sponsorship opportunities, and advancing work on potential stadium solutions.

The Whitecaps said CEO Axel Schuster was unavailable for an interview.

But Nicoll and fellow Southsiders were in an optimistic mood Thursday night, boosted by the solidarity shown by soccer fans coming to the city for the World Cup.

“I think is about more than just Vancouver,” Nicoll said. “This is about football culture worldwide and it really shows that we’re right about that. Football is about the community that built it. It’s not about corporations.”

In the meantime, the Save the ‘Caps movement will continue to fight to save their team, one banner at a time.