Vancouver Whitecaps to play MLS sprint season at BC Place after extending lease

VANCOUVER – The Whitecaps will play another season in Vancouver. 

The Major League Soccer team began selling tickets for the 2027 “sprint season” on Tuesday. 

The condensed campaign will run from February through May, with each of the league’s 30 teams playing a 14-game regular season before the single-elimination playoffs. 

MLS will then move to a summer-to-spring calendar, starting in July 2027. 

The Whitecaps are releasing the tickets after reaching an agreement to extend the club’s lease at BC Place through the sprint season, said Whitecaps chief executive officer Axel Schuster. 

Ample work still needs to be done on finding a long-term solution to the club’s stadium woes, he added. 

“(The extension) should only be a tool, and it should only be the paper that allows us to go out with ticket sales,” Schuster said. “But we all have to continue to work on how a longer-term agreement should and could look like that is improving our situation.”

The Whitecaps have been up for sale since December 2024, and the current ownership group has repeatedly said they want the team to say in Vancouver.

Officials from the club and the league 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 MLS 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 the city.

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

“With the existing deal, we still sit at the end of (the league in) revenues, and there is still a lot of space or a lot of things that need to improve for us, where we have to work together on improving,” Schuster said. 

“We have to find solutions in the contract model, how we can grow, and how with us also other revenues in the stadium can grow.”

Some Whitecaps season ticket members may see the price of their current seats jump for next season as new premium sections are released.

The “Tunnel Club” will give fans exclusive access to a new hospitality suite with all-inclusive food and two complimentary beverages, and the ability to watch players walkout to the field up close before the game begins. 

“Creekside Terrace” also provides a “all-inclusive premium hospitality experience” in a revamped space where fans can both see picturesque views of Vancouver’s False Creek and watch the game simultaneously. 

Both sections of the stadium were renovated as part of the $196-million facelift BC Place received ahead of co-hosting this summer’s FIFA World Cup. 

Some of the seats associated with the two new sections include seats currently held by ticket members, and those prices will increase, Schuster said. 

“The seat is not the same product anymore,” he said. “It is now a premium product because they have built so many new premium areas. And, of course, to these premium products are also seats attached.”

Fans who want to stay season ticket members but don’t want to pay premium prices can move to another seat in the stadium, Schuster added. 

The Whitecaps also announced on Tuesday that star midfielder Thomas Muller has signed a contract extension through the sprint season. 

What happens after remains unclear, both for Muller and the Whitecaps, Schuster said. 

For now, the club is focused on posting a strong finish to the 2026 campaign and preparing for what early 2027 will hold.

“People should know we’re here, we’re staying in the sprint season,” Schuster said. “So the club is not going yet, and nothing is happening yet … And the only way you can show us your support and help is buying tickets and come to the games.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.