Ship's Log: #SaveTheCaps is trying to save MLS from itself

The Vancouver Whitecaps may or may not move to Las Vegas. As of today, we only know for certain that this is a realistic possibility after MLS owners held formal discussions and 30-year-old Public Storage heir Grant Gustavson emerged as an actual bidder.

Although Canadian officials have made encouraging comments about wanting to keep the team and seem willing to make compromises in order to make it happen, it should never have gotten to this point and it would be embarrassingly short-sighted for MLS to allow this move.

Just on a basic level, Vancouver has already proven that it is a far superior soccer market than Las Vegas. Yes, I’ve seen the reports that they’ve lost $300 million since joining MLS in 2011, but the franchise valuation has also increased by more than $400 million. No one is going broke in this venture.

Even if there’s a compelling case that this is not a perpetually sustainable trajectory, I firmly believe the best interest of the team and league are best served by remaining in Vancouver. Yes, that likely requires a dramatically improved stadium situation – either better terms at BC Place (that the team isn't negotiating yet) or a new stadium – but that strikes me as far more likely than the longterm success of a team that is unlikely to be embraced by locals and is gambling on tourists to help make the economics work. Suffice it to say, there has yet to be a MLS team who doesn't have Messi playing for them who has consistently attracted traveling fans.

Optically, moving the Whitecaps would be awful as well. Just spend any amount of time reading, listening or watching what both pundits and fans are saying about this potential move. Literally no one who isn’t paid by the league seems to be defending this.

That's largely because anyone who has paid even half attention can see that Vancouver loves the Whitecaps in a way that few MLS markets have ever loved their teams. Even with the sale of the team looming over everything like a dark cloud for the past 14 months, the Whitecaps have been drawing impressive crowds. They are currently ranked No. 10 in MLS with an average crowd of more than 24,000. Assuming they maintain this momentum, it will mark the third consecutive year that they’ve ranked in the top half of MLS. Twice last year they were able to sell out the full 54,000 capacity of BC Place.

That's no accident. Like the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers, the Whitecaps can legitimately trace their legacy back more than 50 years to the NASL. The Whitecaps’ name has been in continuous use since 2001 and they were among the top drawing teams during their 10-year run in the USL.

That history has helped build a soccer literacy in the city that has few equals on this continent. Walk around Vancouver on a match day – or even on a random Premier League Saturday – and you’re as likely to hear casual fans discussing soccer as hockey. I’ve long believed that Vancouver is a sleeping MLS giant for that exact reason. If the Whitecaps could ever fully tap into that market, there’s no reason they couldn’t be just as big as Seattle. No one is going to say that about Las Vegas.

Allowing the Whitecaps to move would also be a clear message to literally every other market that their team is not actually theirs. The situation in Vancouver is not so different than Seattle's, for instance. If big crowds and on-field success aren’t enough to secure a team's future, how much buy-in can MLS ever ask of fans?

It is not a move the league can afford to take lightly. For the past 20 years or so, MLS has positioned itself as league that centered fans. The rise of supporter groups during that time is arguably as responsible for the league's ascension as the quality of play. They are the primary reason that teams are at least viable local businesses, for the most part.

Yes, that comes with tradeoffs. The Cascadia Cup, for instance, is an organic celebration of fan culture. When MLS misguidedly tried to take ownership of it, the league was rebuffed by fan organization. Similarly, when MLS tried to ban the Iron Front flag and other displays of anti-fascism, fans banded together to win another victory. Most profoundly, when the Columbus Crew were nearly moved to Austin, we saw how fan voices could make a difference.

We’re starting to see similar fan voices crop up in cries of “Save the Caps,” and this might be the most important fight yet. Whether MLS is better off in the short term by moving this team to Las Vegas or not, there is going to be irreparable harm done to the idea that any of us are anything more than customers. No MLS team can reasonably ask any of us to believe that we’re collectively in this together if team with the history and support of the Whitecaps can just be whisked away.

Keeping the Whitecaps in Vancouver isn’t about fan service, it’s about saving the league from itself.