Vancouver Whitecaps signing new one-year lease at B.C. Place: CEO
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VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are staying at B.C. Place — at least for 2026.
Whitecaps CEO and sporting director Axel Schuster revealed Thursday the club has come to a new lease agreement with the provincial Crown corporation that owns and operates the stadium.
Lawyers for both the Major League Soccer team and PavCo are working on the wording of the one-year deal, he said.
The news comes after Ravi Kahlon, British Columbia’s minister of economic growth, said on Tuesday that the Crown corporation offered to return the approximately $1 million to $1.5 million it makes annually from hosting the Whitecaps back to the club.
Kahlon, himself a longtime Whitecaps season-ticket holder, said the lease agreement would also provide “additional revenue opportunities” for the team.
“We have to balance two things. One, our desire and want to keep the Whitecaps here, but also ensuring that taxpayers are protected,” he said. “I don’t think the taxpayers want us bankrolling professional soccer teams, but when there’s one-time supports that the team needs, we’re happy to consider them.”
The Whitecaps understand the government is doing its best with the new agreement, Schuster said.
“We actually want to thank them,” he said. “Even if it is only a little step, it’s a little step and it’s meaningful dollars.”
PavCo said in a statement Thursday that it is “delighted” to hear the Whitecaps have accepted the deal
“We remain fully committed to doing everything we can to continue our partnership with the Vancouver Whitecaps and to help the team stay in B.C. and at B.C. Place for many years to come,” the statement said.
The two sides have long been negotiating a new lease for the 55,000-seat stadium in downtown Vancouver.
Schuster and MLS commissioner Don Garber said late last year that the existing deal was not sustainable because of limited scheduling flexibility and restricted revenue from food and beverage sales.
The new lease does not solve the club’s long-term financial viability issues, the CEO said.
“To be clear, I think it needs 25 to 30 more of these little steps or it needs a few big steps to really get in safe water and to say ‘OK, now this club gets into more of the area of financial stability and viability,'” he said.
The Whitecaps signed a memorandum of understanding with the City of Vancouver in December over exploring the viability of building a new stadium on the city’s eastern edge.
The club and the city have until December 2026 to negotiate a long-term lease that would see the city maintain ownership of the land, while the Whitecaps and their partners would finance the plan.
A design for the stadium will also be put forward, along with the financial terms and community benefits of the project.
“We are looking at a few things that we hope could be a game changer,” Schuster said Thursday. “A different stadium set up is obviously something we have been public about. We are still in the process there and seeing can that be a game changer and how quickly that would be a game changer if it could be a solution.
“Realistically, we probably need a lot of little steps and then maybe find one bigger step. And we’re working on that.”
The club is exploring several sources of revenue, including selling the naming rights for its training centre and for the playing field at B.C. Place, and is appealing to B.C.’s corporate community for help, he added.
Vancouver is coming off its best-ever MLS season, where the team pushed its way to the CONCACAF Champions Cup, won a fourth straight Canadian Championship title and played in its first MLS Cup final.
Despite the on-field success, the Whitecaps still sit at the bottom of the league when it comes to team revenue, trailing clubs in the middle of the standings by $40 million, Schuster said.
“We are really concerned that, after such a successful season, the gap is even becoming bigger, that this at some point will not be manageable for us any more,” he said.
The Whitecaps remain up for sale after the current ownership group put the club on the market at the end of 2024.
Getting the club into a better financial position will hopefully make it more attractive to potential buyers and investors who will keep the team in Vancouver, Schuster said.
There is no deadline for making that happen, he added.
“As long as there is another conversation or another door that opens, we will try to go through this door and try to see if there is behind that door a bigger step or it leads to another small step,” the CEO said. “A lot of small steps can also get you to the solution.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2026.