Chris May likes to joke that he once got to run away and join the circus. In the years prior to becoming the general manager of B.C. Place, he had a five-year run at Cirque Du Soleil, and now, it seems, he has just exchanged one circus for another.
The GM is stuck between the province, which owns and operates the stadium through the B.C. Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), and its unhappy main tenants in the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are at risk of being moved out of town. Ask unhappy soccer fans about the situation, watching the province, Whitecaps and Major League Soccer all negotiate through the media while also doing it at the table, and they would likely say everyone involved are all clowns.
At its simplest level, the Whitecaps said they cannot make enough money under the current lease agreement they have with PavCo. With no takers for the team since it was put on the block a year ago, the burning possibility of the club relocating hit a flashpoint this week with the news MLS was exploring the possibility of moving the club to Las Vegas, among other cities.
The team signed a one-year lease under new terms that would increase their revenue by around $3 million, with the province offering up any profits generated by Caps games, along with an increased share of advertising and concessions. The team said it has a target of $40 million.
Internally, the Whitecaps have discussed the idea of taking over the management of B.C. Place, and are confident they could run it more efficiently and profitably than the province. They would act as the landlords, holding total control of scheduling of all events, from the CFL and B.C. Lions games to concerts and trade shows.
On Tuesday, Ravi Kahlon, the provincial minister of jobs and economic growth, said he would be happy to hear any proposal the team has, but none had yet been tabled. Same for Premier David Eby, who said on Tuesday he was set to meet with MLS commissioner Don Garber. Eby was asked about the Caps taking over the stadium, though it was unclear if the question referred to managing the facility or buying it outright.
“It’s not on the table,” he said. “And I would say the simple reason for that is Whitecaps have shown absolutely no interest in taking over B.C. Place. It’s not a money-maker for the province. It’s an important, critical institution for hosting many events, including Lions and Whitecaps games. I’ll be asking (Garber), what is it? Can we get a specific proposal from you or from the Whitecaps team about what it will take to stay and to do our best to see what we can do? We have to be creative and be cooperative in this project of keeping the Whitecaps here. That’s the goal of everybody, and certainly Mr. Kahlon and his team working hard on that today for the government.”
The Premier cited the Columbus Crew as a positive example of a club that was facing relocation, but found a solution to keep the team in the city. The difference in that case was the league was sued to keep the team in Columbus under the Art Modell law, a statute that prevented professional sports teams that use tax-supported facilities from relocating without proper notice and an opportunity for local ownership to purchase the team. MLS found a way to wriggle out of it without having to go to court, giving then-owner Anthony Precourt an expansion franchise in Austin, and selling the Crew to the Haslam family, owner of the Cleveland Browns.
Eby says he is sympathetic to Caps fans, whose “Save the Caps” campaign has been taken up by Columbus fans as well. “We’ve been hearing from fans who are trying to save the Caps, and I get it. There’s frustration amongst supporters, and I get it because I was in the stands with them for the last 10 years when the team was struggling to get the wins. We were all chanting, ‘we believe the team will win,’ when deep down, we didn’t really believe the team would win, but we did that because we supported the team. And to see the team now become successful, and then all of a sudden, now the value is at its highest, and the owner is saying they want to sell. That is a frustrating thing for supporters of the team to deal with.”
Time is running out. The league will kick off a shortened 14-week season in February 2027, then is pivoting to a summer-to-spring format later that year. Schedules need to be drawn up. The one-year lease the team has signed will have expired. Same with the Memorandum of Understanding to look at building a stadium on the site of the former Hastings Racetrack.
Eby says the province has been an open book, and now it is the team’s turn. Though by admitting the stadium does not generate big profits, it perhaps opens the door for the MLS club. “We have renegotiated a contract that they had for more than a decade. They’ve seen a $2 million reduction in their costs. We’ve seen additional million dollars in revenue for them, so $3 million in total, and we’re still at the table wanting to work with them, because it has to be reasonable. We know two things about professional sports teams: It’s about the passion and love of the team, of the game. If you want to make a lot of money, typically, buying a professional sports team is not necessarily the avenue to do that, but these are also for-profit entities. There is a hope to make a return, to make money. I don’t blame anyone for negotiating hard. All I ask is that they bring forward a proposal around from their perspective, what it will take to stay, and then the province will see what is possible, where we can be creative and try to find a path forward.”
May walked a careful line when asked about the Whitecaps potentially taking over the building’s management. “It’s always going to be a challenge to run a really profitable business when your mandate is one that includes community impact and things like this as part of what you have to deliver. And I think the important thing to focus on is that it’s a public building that’s owned by the people of British Columbia. And every British Columbian has a right to come and enjoy B.C. Place as much as any other. We run that stadium as a multi-purpose facility that supports soccer, that supports football, concerts, trade shows, community events, and that’s the focus: to provide a B.C. Place for all British Columbians. So my hope is that any operator, including PavCo, would always look at that facility as a place for all British Columbians to provide all types of event experience as an opportunity, not just one.”
