Caps aim for record crowd at opener
Goal is to fill lower bowl of B.C. Place when Impact come to town next month
The Vancouver Whitecaps figure they can set a record March 4 when they open their Major League Soccer season at home against the Montreal Impact.
The team, always hesitant to “lift the tarps,” is doing just that for the 3 p.m. opener at B.C. Place Stadium next month.
If the Caps fill the place — and the general pattern in the past has been they offer all the seats only if they believe there’s demand to match — they’ll set a Vancouver pro soccer record for opening-day attendance.
The Whitecaps MLS record high for opening day was on the club’s first day — in 2011, when they pulled in 22,592 to Empire Field.
The highest opening day for the 86ers/Whitecaps during their 24-year journey through the Canadian Soccer League/A-League/ USL was another Day 1 — their first in the CSL, when they pulled in 7,646 fans to Swangard Stadium. To find the all-time record, we go back to the North American Soccer League. In 1980, 25,711 fans were at Empire Stadium to watch the Whitecaps take on the California Surf.
If the Caps can sell out the lower bowl next month — 27,837, a number they’ve hit only twice, both in the playoffs — they’ll have set a new record, though still shy of the 54,798 who took in Canada versus Mexico in men’s World Cup qualifying in 2016, or the 53,341 who watched the 2015 Women’s World Cup final.
“We saw the excitement at the end of last season with those two playoff games, you see the energy and enthusiasm when you can fill that lower bowl. So we challenged ourselves to say, ‘Let’s do it for the home opener,’” Whitecaps chief operating officer Rachel Lewis said Thursday.
Going big like this right off the bat is part of a long-term plan to consistently increase attendance, she added.
“We’re ambitious, and we want to grow over time to a place where ideally you’ll see that lower bowl open every game. It’s going to take time, but hopefully, starting this season, that way is a first step in that direction.”
On the heels of a pair of big crowds that watched international rugby at B.C. Place in the last few months and with big crowds again expected for the third edition of the Canada Sevens, it looks like the local sports fans’ interests are evolving.
“I think it’s fair to say that, in terms of international and national sports,” said Graham Ramsay, director of business for PavCo, the government entity that owns and runs the stadium.
Building B.C. Place into a draw for large soccer and rugby crowds didn’t happen overnight. PavCo had its first discussions with World Rugby officials in 2010, Ramsay said, years before anyone was really thinking about the stadium as a venue for the sport.
The Whitecaps put aside plans to build a waterfront stadium nearly a decade ago, signing on long-term with PavCo.
The stadium was home to soccer when it opened in 1983 and there was always interest in the game in Vancouver, but few saw soccer as a sport that could guarantee big crowds.
Then again, few saw that in rugby, either.
The key in building up those crowds, Ramsay said with some pride, was delivering a game-day experience.
“We have to set the stage for their success,” he said. “We call ourselves ‘Canada’s national stadium.’”
For now, the Whitecaps see consistent crowds in the 28,000 range as their target.
Opening seating in the upper sections of the stadium, like the Canada Sevens have done, is still some time away, Lewis said.
“We want to make sure any capacity we open is going to enhance the experience. You don’t want to be the only person sitting up there alone, because I don’t think that serves the atmosphere we’re known for.
“Hopefully the marketplace will challenge us to consider opening more,” she said. “I think the intimacy we’ve created in our venue has been one of our differentiators, and we want to keep focused on that.”