Vancouver-ish FC

Can the CanPL's newest team find its place in the suburbs

If you are old enough to remember the Canadian Soccer League (the one from the late ‘80s, not the outlaw league in Ontario), it was always a bit weird that there wasn’t a Vancouver team at the launch of the CanPL.

The Vancouver 86ers were the dominate force in the old league, after all. For those of us with a pull to nostalgia, the idea of revising that brand and playing games back at Swangard Stadium always seemed like it would be the perfect merging of old and new.

Alas, that never materialized. Vancouver Island had a better stadium plan than what the city could offer and the owners, Josh Simpson and Rob Friend, decided that it would be better to launch there.

It’s hard to argue with the choice, as Pacific FC has been one of the more successful teams, both on the pitch and off.

Still, it’s hard to be a national league when you don’t have a presence in two of the three major markets in the country, which was the case for the first four years of the league.

That will change next year when Vancouver FC makes its debut. Putting aside the terribly uninspired name — did they get advice from MLS? or something — this is arguably the most important launch for the league since 2019. Having just lost FC Edmonton, the league really needs a win here.

Since the new team is owned by the same group as Pacific FC (Friend will run VFC, with Simpson staying with Pacific, under the business name of SixFive LLC), it’s also an important test of a multi-ownership model. Sure, Bob Young owns parts of three teams, but in that case it’s Forge and a helping hand elsewhere. This is a case where there appears to be an equal desire for both clubs to be successful, whereas Young is very much focused on Forge.

As much as the league wants to suggest otherwise, potential owners aren’t exactly lining up to buy teams. Like we saw in MLS in the early days, we may need to lean into the multi-owner model and this will be an opportunity to test out its workability and acceptance by fans (the Young situation isn’t widely advertised, whereas this is open).

The ownership structure isn’t the only challenge this new team faces though. As the title of the article suggests, Vancouver FC is really Vancouver-ish FC. Like the other major metro team in the CanPL (York United), VFC is in the burbs.

The hope is that VFC will avoid the attendance problems of that team.

If they do, they will be bucking the trend we see in other North American soccer leagues. In MLS, for instance, they have gone out of their way to get out of suburban stadiums and back into the city proper. The Chicago Fire paid a penalty to get out of its lease in Bridgeview, a southern suburb in Chicagoland. They did this despite not having a viable stadium plan to move into.

The location was seen as holding them back that much.

It’s at this point that fans in the Lower Mainland will jump in to explain how their market is different and that VFC will buck the trend and be a successful suburban team.

I’m not here to say that can’t happen. However, for that to play out the new club will need to learn from the mistakes of others who have tried.

Looking at York, here are some things they will need to keep in mind.

• Figure out who you represent and then represent them

Perhaps the biggest issue that York has is that no one really knows who they represent. They launched with the idea that they were going to be York Region’s team, but abandoned that quickly. Then after loudly claiming they were NOT Toronto they ended up putting the CN Tower on their strips last year.

By constantly flipping around they ended up being a team without an identity.

This is the serious reason why the name is concerning. VFC isn’t in Vancouver. That’s going to make it harder to attach themselves to Langley, the part of the Lower Mainland that they will operate in.

Of course, they might try to be the CanPL team of all the Lower Mainland. The problem there is…

• Don’t cast your web too far

In both York’s time as York9 and York United they’ve struggled to narrow their target market down to a manageable area. Bluntly, it was as dumb to think they could appeal to East Gwillimbury in 2019 as it is to go after Leaside or Leslieville in 2022.

In the three major cities, I think you’ll need to narrow your focus. Appeal to local geographic rivalries. For instance, York, who plays in the NW part of the city, should probably look to represent that part of the city. Be Rexdale’s team. Lean into the identity of the neighbourhood you play in.

I don’t know Vancouver’s neighbourhood’s well enough to say what exactly that looks like, but all cities have this kind of dynamic.

Another lesson to learn with casting a wide net in the three major metros is that…

• Don’t try and take on the MLS teams

Look, CanPL teams can put up some brave talk about how they are a more “pure” team to support over the “American” teams in the market — teams that are incredibly established and with large, passionate fan bases.

Those fans might be convinced to also support VFC, but to expect them to abandon a team they have lived and died with for years is farfetched. A few might be tempted to flip, but by and large you need to share the fan base, while finding a few thousand new fans that are attracted to the CanPL for patriotism reasons, or affordable reasons, or because they live close to the stadium.

You don’t need a fan base of 100,000 to thrive in CanPL. Find 10,000, but 10k that you cherish and fully represent.

Finally, try to establish a working relationship with the local MLS team. CanPL fans are too often worried that they will be seen as a “farm team” of the MLS team that they fail to see the advantages that a cooperative relationship can bring. There are rules in place to limit loans in CanPL anyway, so the whole “farm team” is not really an issue.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Who knows, maybe York can learn some best practices from VFC, if they prove my concerns unfounded.

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