Sporting Madness

I was on Daniel Feuerstein 's excellent soccer show, Feuerstein's Fire , earlier today to discuss the Whitecaps, B.C. Place and the Nutrilite Canadian Championship (speaking of which, I'll be live-blogging the Whitecaps - Montreal Impact match here tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. Pacific) with Daniel and my 24th Minute colleague Duane Rollins . The entire show is well worth a listen, touching on Toronto FC, the Montreal Impact and Canadian soccer generally. My segment starts about 45 minutes in. You can check out the show here .

The latest news on the B.C. Place front, which Duane covered here , is rather depressing. As most know, the $365 million plan to replace the existing solid roof with a retractable one and renovate the interior of B.C. Place was an important part of the Whitecaps' successful bid to join Major League Soccer. However, Global BC (a local television channel)'s sources have told them that "the roof replacement may no longer be a key government priority and it may be forced to pull its funding in the current economic climate," meaning "the project could face some serious delays or be cancelled altogether". As the Globe and Mail story linked above shows, nothing's been officially decided yet, though. It's understandable that the provincial government is looking for ways to cut costs. After all, they're facing a deficit that could reach as high as $4 billion this year , despite pre-election predictions in February that it would only be $495 million. Th...

Yesterday may well be remembered as a momentous day in Vancouver soccer history. The news that Miami was dropping out of the MLS expansion race [ Duane Rollins , The 24th Minute ] was huge, as many had seen their bid as almost a sure thing given the involvement of FC Barcelona. This also reduced the pool of remaining cities to four (Vancouver, Portland, Ottawa and St. Louis), giving Vancouver a 50 per cent chance mathematically. Shortly thereafter, the news got even better: Duane related that a highly-placed MLS source had confirmed Vancouver and Portland as the two teams to be added, while Ives Galarcep anointed Vancouver as the front-runner . That seems to be the consensus around the intertubes at the moment, with Vancouver Province soccer reporter Marc Weber telling me on Twitter that he’d bet his house on Vancouver earning an expansion slot (he also put up a post about it today), Ben Knight declaring the Whitecaps all-but-in today, Ben Van Weelden proclaiming the Whiteca...

Photo: The Vancouver Whitecaps take on Toronto FC at Burnaby's Swangard Stadium. [Andrew Bucholtz photo]. A bit late getting to this one due to the other work I've had to do, but I was at the Vancouver Whitecaps - Toronto FC match on Wednesday, so I figured I'd better write about it briefly here. This was of course the Whitecaps' final match of the Nutrilite Canadian Championships, and came on the heels of their stunning Canada Day victory [myself, Out of Left Field ] over TFC at BMO Field [myself, this blog]. Unfortunately, the pair of eggs they laid against Montreal meant that they needed to win by a landslide to have any hope, and there wasn't much of a chance of that happening. There was plenty of pride on the line, though, and the Whitecaps played their hearts out, earning a draw in the end [Matthew Sekeres, The Globe and Mail ]. Here's the breakdown, in classic GBU style : Final score: Whitecaps 2, TFC 2 How I saw it: In person The Good: Eduardo Sebra...

To make a Major League Soccer franchise, you will need: - One (1) large metropolitan area with a long soccer tradition - One (1) billionaire owner committed to building a soccer-specific stadium at his own expense - At least three (3) natural rivals either in the league , entering the league , or pushing for an expansion slot . - 48, 172 fans who come out for a mere exhibition game against an MLS side (granted, one with a noted superstar ) - One (1) prominent and highly recognizable Canadian soccer player , national coach, Hall of Fame member, club coach, star executive, team president, spokesperson , TV commentator and newspaper columnist to helm the franchise bid. - One (1) soccer-specific waterfront stadium (NOTE: Highly desirable, but can be replaced temporarily by the following concoction: one (1) aging stadium that's shown it can handle high-level soccer matches , one (1) provincial premier willing to step into the breach left by local authorities and spend money on spor...

Some interesting news came out today. The Vancouver Whitecaps, who have been trying for ages to give the city a privately-funded new showcase stadium (supposed to be paid for entirely by Vancouver multi-millionare Greg Kerfoot, the team's owner who has been a key financial backer of the growth of soccer in Canada) with little success, may have finally made the breakthrough needed on a stadium of suitable size to support their Major League Soccer ambitions. However, the potential breakthrough has come from an unexpected direction that may cause as many problems as it creates. According to local radio station CKNW, both the Whitecaps and Lions will be represented tomorrow morning at a news conference called by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell , which is believed to be on the subject of a new retractable roof for B.C. Place. The Whitecaps told CKNW last week that they'd consider playing in B.C. Place with the new roof if it helped their chances of landing an MLS franchise. On the fac...