Investment group comes forward to buy the Vancouver Whitecaps and move team to Las Vegas

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — An investment group has come forward to buy the Vancouver Whitecaps and relocate the Major League Soccer club to Las Vegas.

The group is led by Grant Gustavson, grandson of B. Wayne Hughes, the founder of Public Storage. The Whitecaps were put up for sale 16 months ago, but no potential buyers had emerged publicly until Thursday.

“In the coming weeks and months, we look forward to the opportunity to share more, however, out of respect for the league’s deliberations and community stakeholders, we are refraining from sharing details of our proposal,” Gustavson said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work for a positive outcome for the game, the fans, the league and Las Vegas.”

Gustavson said the investment group will privately finance the deal to buy the team and relocate it and it is “not connected to any of the recently announced arena ideas in Las Vegas.”

Major League Soccer has said it would “evaluate all options” for the future of the Whitecaps, including a possible move. The team currently plays at BC Place, which will host seven games of this summer’s World Cup. But the league has said the lease situation with the stadium is untenable and would prefer a soccer-specific stadium for the team.

“It’s reaching a critical point,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday during a meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York.

Garber cited strict schedule restrictions from the government entity that owns and operates the building and an inability to add premium seating.

British Columbia’s government said Tuesday it is working with the Whitecaps to help the team lower costs and generate more revenue at BC Place — but it won’t be buying the team to prevent it from moving cities.

The team’s supporters were at Thursday’s meeting of the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, many waving signs that read “Save the ‘Caps.” Posters with the words were plastered across downtown.

Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s minister of jobs and economic growth, said the team is now using the stadium at no cost, and any breaks that the team received this year could be extended for another year.

“Look, I think we should all be concerned,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said following the congress at the Vancouver Convention Center. “And that goes well before Vegas came into the picture. We’ve been concerned. We’ve been working on this for more than a year. We can’t control what other groups that have an interest in our team, what they do. All we can do is control our destiny.”

Sim added that the city has identified a site where a new owner could build a stadium and entertainment district without taxpayer dollars. The next step would be a bridge deal with the province.

The Whitecaps and the provincial government — which owns BC Place through the provincial Crown corporation PavCo — signed a one-year lease earlier this year, which annually returns to the club about $1 million to $1.5 million that the province makes from hosting.

Garber has expressed hope the Whitecaps could find a way to remain in Vancouver and said expansion to Las Vegas could also be a possibility. Las Vegas is not necessarily the only city being discussed.

In a statement earlier this week, the Whitecaps said it had “serious conversations with more than 100 parties, and to date, no viable offer has emerged that would keep the club here.”

“The club has faced well-documented structural challenges around stadium economics, venue access, and revenue limitations that have made it difficult to attract buyers committed to keeping the team in Vancouver.”

A franchise fee that costs tens of millions of dollars to enter MLS 15 years ago is now worth hundreds of millions. In May 2023, a $500 million expansion fee was paid to secure the league’s 30th team in San Diego.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer