Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all are having a lovely start to October and that your weekend is beckoning ever closer.
This was the first time in a while that we didn’t have a midweek match, but it was still a busy week in Caps world. The big news, which has good and bad elements embedded within it, is that the Whitecaps will exist in 2027, with the club signing a one-year lease extension at BC Place to ensure they will remain in town through at least the sprint season. This wasn’t the unambiguously good news we were all hoping for, but it is a huge sigh of relief. After months of positive developments, things seem to have stalled lately, and the guarantee for next season is a good thing.
The downside is that the announcement was accompanied by a round of pretty sizable increases to season ticket prices, which comes as BC Place is getting a minor overhaul, including more premium seating. Depending on where folks’ seats are, I’ve seen people facing increases ranging from a modest bump to thousands of dollars.
I get that this is all a business, and I think the Caps’ ticket prices were relatively reasonable by North American sports standards. But it sucks that, after everything that has gone on in the last year or two, the club is treating its most loyal supporters like ATMs. I suppose there is no real way to square “keep ticket prices down” with “make the club more profitable so it sticks around” but I feel for people. The economy isn’t great right now, and this will likely mean more people buying single-game tickets and eschewing season plans, which will undoubtedly harm attendance. Rewarding the loyalty of people who have supported this club for years, if not decades, would seem to pave the way towards more revenue in the long run.
The other piece of good news, which is all upside, is that Thomas Müller will be back playing in BC Place during the sprint season, as he re-upped his contract for another year. I would have been surprised if this didn’t happen, as there has been nothing about Müller’s play in recent months that has suggested he’s ready to go lie on a beach somewhere. And he clearly is enjoying his time in Vancouver.
This news means that, regardless of how this season plays out, the Caps will be one of the favorites to win MLS Cup next season. Heck, they might even be more favored than this year because it would mean more time to let the new signings bed in. And you know Müller would like nothing more than to win one more trophy on the way out the door.
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