Who might be interested in buying the Vancouver Whitecaps?

Neither the Vancouver Canucks nor the B.C. Lions seem to be in the mix to buy?the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Global B.C. is reporting that the Aquilini family, which owns the Canucks, has “no interest” in purchasing the Whitecaps. The soccer club announced Friday that owners Greg Kerfoot, Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett and Steve Nash are looking to sell.

The Canucks’ transactions tend to include land plays, and the Whitecaps simply can’t offer that, since they are merely tenants at B.C. Place. For instance, the Canucks’ bringing their AHL farm team to Abbotsford led to them gaining operating control of the Abbotsford Centre.

The Lions, meanwhile, put out a statement explaining that, “We don’t know of any plans to purchase another franchise. Our immediate focus is building a Grey Cup championship squad for 2025 and beyond.”

Forbes listed the Whitecaps’ value at $420 million US last February, which put them second from the bottom amongst Major League Soccer’s current 29 active clubs. LAFC ($1.2 billion) and Inter Miami ($1.03 billion) held down the top two spots on that list.

Whitecaps CEO and sporting director Axel Schuster said more than once in his media availability on Friday that the intent is for the team to remain in Vancouver.

Nobody will admit it publicly, but you would think that the Whitecaps would have touched base with the Canucks and Lions at the start of this process. If there was any headway made, the Whitecaps wouldn’t likely have gone public about selling or likely enlisted Goldman Sachs to broker any sort of deal.

Schuster also confirmed Friday there is no language in the team’s deal with MLS keeping the franchise from moving to another city. The Whitecaps paid a $40 million expansion fee and were the league’s 17th team when they started in 2011.

“There’s nothing written in any agreement,” he said.

Schuster says current ownership is committed for the 2025 season, so there is an extended runway for this to play out.

On the plus side for staying here, the Whitecaps have a long history, the World Cup is coming in 2026, and the team finished seventh in announced average attendance for regular season games in the MLS this past season, with 26,121 per game. Vancouver is also a highly visible, gateway city.

The Whitecaps in Vancouver might be attractive to a soccer conglomerate. Think MLS rival New York City FC, who are owned by City Football Group, which is named after its flagship Manchester City and has 13 teams worldwide. Extending brand opportunities is among the positives and Vancouver would be attractive in that regard.

The MLS hasn’t ruled out expansion, either, so you would expect the league to go out of its way to help the team stay here rather than giving up a coveted expansion spot and the league fee that would go with it. San Diego FC becomes the league’s 30th team operating next season, and they paid a $500-million expansion fee. The next new teams will have to pay even more than that.

Commissioner Don Garber didn’t have anything definitive to say when asked about possible expansion at the San Diego’s introduction announcement in 2023.

“We never say never to anything because, you know, our plan evolves as the market evolves. We never thought we’d be at 24, we never thought we’d be at 26,” Garber said then. “I don’t think sitting here today that we have any plan in the near future to go beyond 30 teams. We’ve got a lot of work to do to build the league to sort of capture the opportunity that we all see in front of us in the years to come, particularly through 2026, but who knows what the future looks like after that.”

In January, Sportico had Whitecaps’ revenue at $45 million in 2023, which was No. 27 in the league. For perspective, LAFC topped the list, bringing in $128 million that year.

The Whitecaps are one of eight teams in the MLS that don’t play in a soccer-specific stadium, and there’s a school of thought that they would be better off financially and have more control in their own building, or if they were the clear prominent tenant. The team was forced to play an away playoff game this season and had the right to host in Portland because B.C. Place was booked for preparations for a Supercross event.

It should also be pointed out that Bob Mackin of The Breaker News found out through a Freedom Of Information Act in August 2021 the Whitecaps’ lease with B.C. Place and he reported then that it maxes out this coming year at a $325,000, or somewhere in the neighbourhood of $16,250 per game, depending on their schedule.

The lease with B.C. Place is up after this season. Schuster was asked Friday about a possible ticket revenue split on the new deal on Friday and neatly danced around it, as you would expect.

“We have started the conversations one, two months ago, and it’s impossible to say a percentage, because this deal is so complex,” Schuster said. “One reality is this lease is old — 14 years old right now. We all have agreed that this deal is a little bit fallen out of time, and that the new format has to look different and has to be adjusted to the realities of today.

“This deal is super complex on certain categories in the stadium and levels and fees. It wouldn’t be helpful at all to start to dip into certain numbers.”

He went on to joke about the current deal already being public because of the FOI request, and suggested that others could take a crack at looking it up in that regard.

“If somebody wants to do this work and wants to read the truth … good luck and very welcome,” he said.

sewen@postmedia.com