MLS Cup: Whitecaps’ watch party could dwarf actual Miami final crowd

Article content

In a season where the Vancouver Whitecaps announced they’re for sale, where they’ve made it clear they need a new stadium, where the league’s commissioner ripped their current stadium, where the Whitecaps ended up playing an away playoff game on a re-sodded pitch that cut up badly a week after a college football game had delayed the previous game two days, leaving a pitch that still had gridiron lines on it, it’s somewhat ironic that the MLS Cup Final watch party at B.C. Place may outdraw the crowd that will be watching the final in person in Florida.

Article content

Got all that?

Article content

Article content

Saturday’s MLS Cup final is a momentous occasion in the history of Vancouver soccer. For the first time in 46 years, a team from Vancouver will play for the championship of the biggest soccer competition in Canada and the United States.

There’s no denying the fans have taken notice. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Caps had sold more than 16,000 tickets to the watch party they’re hosting at B.C. Place, where the centre-field video board will be lowered to serve as the largest TV anyone in attendance will likely ever see. (The game itself kicks off at 11:30 a.m. If you can’t make it in person, the match is on Apple TV and also on TSN.)

The Whitecaps are prepared to have as many as 25,000 or so, the rough maximum capacity of B.C. Place’s lower bowl.

Article content

Article content

Anything over 21,550, by the way, will be a bigger crowd than what will fit into Fort Lauderdale’s Chase Stadium, Inter Miami’s home for the last five years. The club that Beckham built will move next year to a new stadium that’s in Miami proper, one that will have a soccer-specific design and have capacity for 25,000 fans.

Had the Whitecaps hosted the final, you know that they’d have pulled in double that: they pulled a massive crowd, 53,837 strong, for the Champions Cup match in April. They beat that number last week vs. LAFC, drawing 53,957 to the Dome.

It should also be noted that had the Caps not stumbled at the final hurdle, a loss on the final day of the season to FC Dallas, they would have been hosting Saturday’s final. Assuming, of course, that they’d got through the different path they’d have taken to the final because a final-day win would also have made them the Western Conference’s first seed.

Article content

But whatever. They’ve made massive amounts of noise this year. They are clearly building something that’s resonated with Vancouver sports fans.

The Whitecaps themselves are, obviously, delighted.

Tristan Blackmon’s eyes bulged with delight when he was told how many tickets had already been sold as of Tuesday.

“All year the fans have been so good to us showing up,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re gonna be out there in full force. It’s awesome to hear.”

Jeevan Badwal still can’t quite believe how his first year as a full-on professional has gone, here with his hometown team.

“It’s amazing, man. You know, being a kid growing up in Vancouver, you don’t see this,” he said of how fan support has truly swollen beyond the long-standing hardcore base. “It’s the first time and being a part of it is more spectacular.”

Article content

His parents and family are flying down to Florida too. So are a pack of his friends.

“People are catching on to the hype, and you know, it’s just that support that pushes us to do better and to really get that cup for the city,” winger Jayden Nelson remarked. This is his first season playing in Vancouver and growing up in Toronto, his first dose of a different kind of Canadian soccer culture.

“I felt like the city deserved a team performing how we are, you know? I think they were waiting for that,” he said. “And I think now that they have that they’ve come out and supported It’s nice to see everyone’s loving it. Everyone’s behind us. And yeah, just gives us the extra push.”

[email protected]

Article content