Whitecapsfanblog

Negotiations between Several USL-1 teams and the United Soccer Leagues have come to a crisis point.

USL used to be owned by NIKE.  NIKE recently sold the League to an Atlanta outfit known as NuRock.  The team owners had looked to buy the USL from NIKE but NuRock swooped in and bought the league from under the noses of the team owners. The team owners were not pleased. Some, including the Montreal Impact and the Vancouver Whitecaps, formed the team owners association (TOA) as a group to negotiate with the USL.

Today the USL announced that negotiations with the TOA were over.  No deal had been made.  The League later released a press release claiming that it was still open to having the Whitecaps and the Impact play in the USL-1 next season.   This would appear to open the door to more negotiations, or might represent a last-ditch attempt to have the Whitecaps and the other owners accept the USL’s terms in their entirety.   The parties appear to have stepped to the brink, but have now stepped back somewhat.

The Whitecaps have released a statement to their fans saying the Whitecaps will be involved in “league play” next year, but don’t say which league.   It appears as though the TOA will begin the process of setting up a parallel league in case negotiations fall through completely with USL.

The Whitecaps should not give in to the USL on terms that are unacceptable.   In my view, however,  it would be sad to not see the USL split up by this dispute.  The standard of play in the USL has gone up considerably in the last 5 years and the league is now very competitive.  If the TOA want to set up their own league, they should ensure that it is of high quality.   I don’t want to go back to the days of watching inferior teams as we used to with some of the teams in the old A-League.  Lets hope the USL and the TOA can step back from the brink and negotiate a deal which is good for all, especially for the sport itself. The game is bigger than all of this.

Though things perked up for the Whitecaps this year in the playoffs, I have to say that this was one of the least enjoyable years we have had at Swangard in recent memory.  The only season I can remember which was less enjoyable was when previous owner Stadnyk abandoned the team mid-season.  Saying why this season was so bad is difficult, however.  Perhaps it was because a lot of the best loved players departed in the off season: Sebrango, Clarke, Kindel, Valente and Jordan.  We had to get used to a whole new mob of players, many of whom were hardly inspiring.   Furthermore, the team struggled all year until the very end when they came good.

The schedule was diabolical this year.  At one point we only had one home game between June 12 and July 25, which was verses the Minnesota Thunder on July 9th.  The lack of games to watch in this period alienated the fans from the team.  Some have speculated that the bad schedule was because of the fact that the Whitecaps were leaving the USL-1.  Whatever the reason, some of my buddies at the game felt that this gap really damaged their enjoyment of the season.

I suppose we all felt disappointed that we had won the championship last year, and then we came out so mediocre as a team this year.  I had hoped that we would win the points race for the first time since the ‘86ers days.  I believe that only one team has ever won the points race and the USL-1 championship in the same year: our arch-rivals the Seattle Sounders.   I though this was the year we might do it.  How wrong I was.  The wholesale change in playing personnel put paid to that.

Then there was the fight between Gbeke and Charles during the Miami match.  This was the low point in the season.    The team had become downright unsavory to watch.

Then there was the Canadian Championship scandal, where we were let down by Montreal’s 1-6 capitulation to Toronto FC .  This result ended up with us losing our CONCACAF Champions League spot to TFC.  The sight of our players, who had travelled all the way to Montreal to pick up the Canadian Championship Trophy , forlornly standing in the rain when it dawned on them what was happening, was a depressing sight indeed.

The playoff run really saved the year.  Other than that, it was a weird season.  The regular season performance was poor stuff.  Hopefully 2010 will be a better year.  My belief is that the Caps should have as a goal winning both the League and the Championship trophy.  Why not?

Lets leave USL-1 with a bang and with our heads held high.

Whew!!! For a while there it looked as though we were going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  The Whitecaps, having been successful in their Major League Soccer bid, a bid which included a refurbished and re-roofed BC Place stadium, suddenly were in crisis mode when the BC Government announced it was having a second look at the BC Place roof project.  When the government first announced the new BC Place roof project, the economic bubble had not yet burst.  The Province’s coffers were full to bursting.   Then World markets collapsed and so did the Province’s coffers as the selling of BC resources practically ground to a halt.  The Government faced tough choices in how it would spend its money.  In an era of belt tightening, the new roof on BC Place began to look not only economically unjustifiable, but politically dangerous to boot.

While we are not out of the woods yet, Canada and BC look well situated to weather the Great Recession quite well, thank you very much.   While there are those who think spending so much money on the roof is a waste of money in desperate times, the new roof is necessary to maintain and renew a critical resource for BC and Vancouver.  We cannot let a symbol of our province crumble and fall into ruin.    Anyone who owns an asset knows that you must maintain it or else you end up spending even more money to replace it.

While there are those who look down their snobby noses on sports, the BC Lions and the Vancouver Whitecaps pull people out of their homes and give people an opportunity  enjoy the company of their fellow human beings in what are community gatherings.   The sense of community and pride which our sports teams provide are well worth the money being spent.

I commend the government for having the political courage to put a new roof on BC Place.   History will demonstrate that it was the right thing to do.