Vancouver May Not Be Whitecaps In MLS

Turns our we may not have the Whitecaps in MLS afterall. No they aren’t losing their expansion bid already but they may not be the MLS Whitecaps when they enter the league in 2011. CTV is reporting that Whitecaps President Bob Lenarduzzi says he can’t guarantee that the soccer club will keep the Whitecaps name once its joins the MLS in 2011.

“There are a lot of things we need to make decisions on,” he said. “The Whitecaps name has a lot of equity. There may be people out there that think it may need to be something other than that.”

Still, gaining entry to North America’s top soccer league marks a personal victory for Lenarduzzi, who played for the Whitecaps when they won the North American Soccer League Championship in 1979.

“I honestly didn’t think that there would be an opportunity to recapture what we had back then,” he said.

More than likely this won’t matter much. Seattle faced a similar issue going into their name picking a while back. If enough fans are in love with the Whitecaps name then you can believe they will remain the Whitecaps once they join MLS in a couple years.

Lenarduzzi sounds like a very passionate man too. He also stated he believes the club will do better than both Canadian rival Toronto FC and Cascadia Cup rival Seattle Sounders FC. He like the idea of Vancouver being able to out sell both cities in terms of season tickets.

“There is no doubt in my mind we are a better soccer market than those two,” he said. “I am excited about the prospect.”

It’s certainly possible in a soccer crazy market. I like the lofty goals by Lendaruzzi. Maybe they will come true.