The commissioner of Major League Soccer paid a visit to Indianapolis this week, setting Whitecaps social media aflame with fears of the team — which is up for sale — being relocated.
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In ancient times, humans would look to the night sky in wonderment, wondering what those bright specks were, floating serenely in the dark. They named them, grouped them, turned them into imaginary Etch-A-Sketch bears, hunters, twins, stags, swords or giant ladles that populated the heavens.
The ancient Greeks were particularly active, creating most of the modern constellations in a giant game of connect-the-dots that they folded into their mythology and used to divine the truth.
Vancouver Whitecaps fans are also prone to playing connect the dots. But just like the astrology of the ancients, it’s not an exact science.
Three dots, forming a straight line that points straight out of town, according to the doomsayers.
“No one has to be worried. And I can confirm again, and I will do this again and again, because I feel that there is a lot of concerns in our market and fear, and that’s all fair … but I can confirm first, that everyone — the ownership group, Goldman (Sachs), the league, myself, everyone — is working only on a solution that continues to have this club in Vancouver, and makes it successful in Vancouver, and sets the club up for future success,” Caps president Axel Schuster said at a roundtable with local media in the bowels of B.C. Place on Wednesday.
“There’s no door that we open right now for any other scenario.”
There are at least two groups locally who have expressed interest in buying the team, and Goldman Sachs has been meeting with prospective bidders. MLS vice-president Dan Courtemanche released a statement saying Garber’s visit was merely him taking up a long-standing invitation from Hogsett.
“We appreciate his invitation to visit and the warm welcome from the community today. We always welcome discussions with civic and business leaders committed to growing the sport,” he told Indy’s 13News.
MLS has currently paused its expansion at 30 teams, as it is well aware of the risks of expanding too fast, too quickly, having to contract in the early 2000s. Indy may well be just securing their spot for when Garber and Co. open up to make room for teams No. 31 and 32.
The business side for the Whitecaps relocating doesn’t make sense to Schuster. Why pass on an expansion fee of mega-millions for the peanuts of a potential relocation fee? MLS ownership is a single entity, actually owning all the teams with the franchise runners getting operational rights. Revenue is shared, including those from expansion fees.
“In a business model thinking, it doesn’t make so much sense to say, ‘Oh, they want to have a team in Indianapolis. Now they probably move the Whitecaps there, because then the money doesn’t go to MLS — or at least a lot of it doesn’t go to MLS,’” said Schuster. “From a business point, I don’t think that MLS ever would bring up, ‘Oh, Indianapolis, you can also buy the Whitecaps.’ (No), they can get a franchise … (for) $700 million.”
Not everyone is convinced. Indy Star columnist James Briggs, for example, is convinced the Indiana metropolis is about to snag themselves a team.
Vancouver fans are particularly sensitive to that idea, having seen the Grizzlies poached by Memphis in the early aughts after many vehement and vigorous denials by new owner Michael Heisley that he would never move the team. He, too, had the support of the league and declared his commitment to the city, then proceeded to yank the rug out from under it.
Heisley cited the plummeting Canadian dollar as one of the reasons. It was 67 cents in 2001 compared to the U.S. greenback. It was exchanging at 70 cents on Wednesday.
“If we speak about fears, and I get that, but I want to remind everyone that (I don’t like to) speak so much about the Grizzlies. I prefer to speak about the B.C. Lions and a franchise that had to go through an ownership change. And I think they are in a better place today than they have been before,” he said. “Our ideal scenario is that we’re working on to find such a next ownership group that takes it from where we are at now.
“And in the meantime, we all work to show everyone how important this club is, how good this club is. This is more than just a MLS soccer club. This is a community club.
“I say this to every employee that the best we can do is to make this (club) a very attractive bride. So that everyone is ‘Wow, the Whitecaps. People really love the club. That club really looks attractive.”
The Whitecaps will be sold, eventually, and the chances are still very good the team — despite its financial foibles — will remain in Vancouver. Unless, that is, their fate is written in the stars and we just haven’t deciphered it yet.