Bob Lenarduzzi on It’s Called Football
A great interview with Whitecaps President Bob Lenarduzzi on It’s Called Football this morning.
Now, it’s probably not news to those who are more in the loop than I that the franchise fee Vancouver paid to the MLS was $35 million – $5 million less than the (what I thought) was a “non-negotiable” $40 mil MLS franchise fee, but it was news to me. And it begs the question – if the MLS was willing to budge on the franchise fee for the ‘Caps, then why did they come across so inflexible with the Impact? Or was the Impact offer really that low?
Now you could say that hey, it’s only $5 million, but the point being that the fee was apparently non-negotiable. So to see a team get in for less must be making Joey Saputo’s blood boil. Now, I haven’t followed this saga all the way through so I’m not an authority on what all the sticking points in the negotiations between Saputo and the MLS were, but I do know this was one of them. If I was an Impact fan, hearing that Van got in with a lower fee might add some insult to injury. Or maybe there were so many other factors involved that it’s a non issue. If you followed the Montreal saga along I would love to hear how you feel about it in the comments.
Some other points Lenarduzzi makes:
- The name. Unless there is a huge outpouring for something OTHER than Whitecaps (yeah, right), the name of the MLS franchise will be Whitecaps.
- They will be playing in BC Place until at least 2016. There is no out clause in their contract with BC Place, meaning that the Waterfront stadium seems to be on hold until at least 2016. Also, there will be no football lines on the pitch at BC Place.
- The status of the Academy is still not finalized. I am not fully up to speed on what the exact issue is, so if you have some more info to add that would be great.
It was a great show this morning. Especially entertaining was the interview with the Timbers Army representative. His referring to the shade of green in the Seattle Sounders uniform as something that a farm animal would piss out was priceless. The Cascadia rivalry is gonna be great.
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Good post. You're right on on the Whitecaps name; it needs to be kept. The problem with the academy system as I understand it is it's basically a European model; in MLS, the vast majority of players are acquired through the draft, which doesn't exist in Europe. Thus, if you leave it as is, Vancouver would have an edge over other MLS teams; they would still get draft picks but they would also have their own pipeline of talent that other clubs couldn't touch. However, MLS probably doesn't want to destroy Vancouver's academy, as similar facilities will help the league in the long run. Just guessing here, but there are potential compromises I could see, including some academy prospects going into the draft while others stay with Vancouver, other clubs having access to academy prospects but having to give Vancouver picks in compensation or MLS encouraging other clubs to set up their own academies and reduce the importance of the draft.