MLS Commissioner Don Garber “a little more hopeful” on keeping the Whitecaps in Vancouver, but “the pieces are in place in Las Vegas”

MLS Commissioner Don Garber has been a busy many of late. On Thursday he was in Vancouver to watch Canada dismantle Qater. The following day, he was in Seattle to cheer on the US. Buoyed with all the excitement for the game and what it could mean for his MLS clubs and the future fanbase for the game in the US and Canada, it’s an exciting time for the sport in both countries.

But here in Vancouver, there is still a dark cloud hovering – the future of the Whitecaps.

A lot of work has been done behind the scenes in recent weeks in terms of keeping the club in the city and when Garber took the opportunity to speak with media in Seattle on Friday morning ahead of the US’ game with Australia, the subject of the Whitecaps was at the forefront of discussion.

“I was up there last night, came here after the game,” Garber said of being in Vancouver for Canada’s World Cup game against Qatar. ” I spent a couple of minutes with the Premier, a couple of minutes with the Prime Minister, spent a couple of minutes with the PavCo folk who are controlling that stadium, and we are committed to keeping the team there if we have a viable stadium project, which we don’t have now.

“I spent a couple of days in Montreal and the city there and their version of PavCo is working very closely with us and our Montreal ownership to try and have us operate what would be a spectacular renovation of the Olympic Stadium. We want to be the ones that control our destiny like every sports team does. It’s taking longer than we’d like but I was really impressed by the fan turnout to that [Canada] game and I’d love to find a solution.”

The Whitecaps financial void from playing at BC Place has been well documented and Garber reiterated again the fact that the Whitecaps can’t control the dates at BC Place right now.

But while not a lot of major movement has been made public in recent weeks, that doesn’t mean that a lot of work isn’t being done behind the scenes and Garber remains positive that the ‘Caps will get the necessary outcomes they crave.

“I’m a little more hopeful,” Garber insisted. “The city has its issues. The corporate community that’s not been supportive of the club is now recognising what soccer and what the Whitecaps mean to the city. We are a very relevant club that doesn’t have a good business model and you can’t be sustainable… We need to keep moving forward with strength and energy and momentum and you can’t have a dynamic that’s the old days. MLS 1.0. An old stadium that doesn’t have a good connection with the team. I think they want to find a solution. I think the politicians there need to have the political will. This requires somebody that’s going to step up and say ‘I’m going to do this’.

“That’s what happened in Columbus. The club, the mayor, the economic development folks, even with a strong hand the Governor. They all said we want to keep the crew. And then we did our job. We found an owner, we put in capital, and that team just raised money of $900 million. That team wasn’t sustainable, so we could solve every problem if we have willing partners.”

Garber noted that while the politicians are all saying the right things, he hopes that they’re not just platitudes, stressing that the league has been spending a lot of time in Vancouver to make sure the necessary deals get done and the club stays in the city.

“I have a full time person from the league office up there,” Garber revealed. “We’re doing our job. We’ve got Victor Montagliani, a Vancouver native that’s got a lot of influence in the city, sitting next to the Prime Minister last night helping us out. We want to keep the team there, but we can’t do that unless the political influencers and their entities put together something that will allow Vancouver to be not bottom of the list.

“Why would Vancouver be about last in every measure? It’s not because Greg Kerfoot doesn’t care about the team, it’s because they don’t have the tools to be successful.”

So while positive, there is no doubting the seriousness and financial clout of the investor group led by Las Vegas businessman Grant Gustavson that has submitted a formal bid to Major League Soccer to purchase the Whitecaps and relocate the franchise to Vegas

They are primed, ready to go, and a group that Garber and the league want to work with going forward, in one way or another.

“I think we have a great, passionate, well-heeled owner that has an option on an unbelievably attractive piece of land,” Garber said. “He represents a young, new era of MLS team ownership. I’d like to see us be able to make a deal, get a deal done there, and we’ve got a lot of work to do to try and figure out how to do that, but the pieces are in place in Las Vegas.”

With the Vegas vultures circling, has the league given the Whitecaps a deadline to get a deal done?

“Time is an enemy to any deal,” Garber said ominously. “We haven’t put a line in the sand and said it has to get done the day after tomorrow. But the longer it waits, like any deal, people just get distracted, they lose interest, or people move on, and we don’t want to be in that situation.”