Whitecaps CEO says sale of MLS team no closer to reality

The chief executive officer of the Vancouver Whitecaps says he remains concerned about the team's future because no progress has been made on securing new ownership.

Axel Schuster said on Wednesday that his level of concern hasn't risen, but it hasn't fallen either.

“My best update to the whole situation is nothing has changed," he said. "And we are continuing to do day to day the same thing we were doing since a long time, and especially we are doing since the beginning of the year.”

The Whitecaps have been up for sale since December 2024, and the current ownership group — including Greg Kerfoot, Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett and former NBA star Steve Nash — has repeatedly said the priority was keeping the team in Vancouver.

The Whitecaps have previously said more than 100 groups expressed interested in purchasing the franchise and more than 30 were given access to the club's finances, but no viable offers followed.

"We've always had interested parties. We had a lot. And those parties still need to go through processes and need to qualify," Schuster said on Wednesday. "It is normal business there. Nothing has developed to the negative, but it's also not yet a positive."

Officials from the club and Major League Soccer have had multiple meetings with representatives of the municipal, provincial and federal governments as well as leaders of three local First Nations to discuss the team's future.

Both the Whitecaps and the league have said the team's ability to generate revenue is limited, in part because it does not own its home stadium BC Place, and that has made it difficult to attract buyers willing to keep the team in Vancouver.

The 55,000-seat venue is owned and operated by PavCo, a provincial Crown corporation.

The club is still working on various options for addressing the stadium situation, Schuster said, including talks with the provincial government, but those talks were interrupted by a cabinet shuffle in August. A snap election called by Premier David Eby on Tuesday could also impact negotiations with the province, he added.

“The best thing I can say right now, nothing has changed," Schuster said. “We understand certain things, but the outcome remains the same — nothing has developed in a positive or negative way.”

The Whitecaps do not have a deal in place to play games at BC Place in 2027, he added, and the CEO would have liked to see more "goodwill" from the provincial government by now.

"We don't have a lot of time for more delays," he said. “We are running a little bit out of time. We're going next season, and going in the next season with no changes is not a good thing.”

Schuster has previously said neither the current ownership group nor the league have set a timeline for when a sale must be complete, but he noted the team does need somewhere to play.