SEATTLE (AP) — MLS Commissioner Don Garber said before the United States beat Australia at the World Cup on Friday that the Vancouver Whitecaps need to have a new stadium deal in order to keep the club in Vancouver.
“We’re committed to keeping the team here if we have a viable stadium project,” Garber said, “which we don’t have now.”
Financial hurdles have hit the club despite its success on the pitch. BC Place, the Whitecaps’ home since 2011, is government-owned and operated by B.C. Pavilion Corporation, restricting the club from potential revenue streams.
In April, Vancouver mayor Ken Sim said the city has offered space at Hastings Park on its east side for the team to build a stadium.
“Now, we face the difficult part,” Sim said at the time. “BC Place is owned and operated by the Provincial Government. In fact, it’s the only stadium owned and operated by a government found anywhere in the MLS. In order for the team to stay in Vancouver, the Whitecaps and Province must sign a bridge deal that will allow BC Place to become viable in the near term while a new stadium can be designed and built.”
Scheduling flexibility has also been a problem, as the Whitecaps had to forfeit home-field advantage for a 2024 playoff game due to a motocross event taking place at the stadium.
“We want to keep the team there, but we can’t do that unless the political influencers and their entities put together something that will allow Vancouver to not be at the bottom of the list,” Garber said. “They don’t have the tools to be successful.”
The Whitecaps sit atop the Western Conference standings during the MLS’ World Cup break. They reached their first MLS Cup Final in 2025 and have won four consecutive Canadian championships.
The fan support has reflected that success. The Whitecaps rank eighth among 30 clubs in average attendance this season, and they led the league in attendance during last year’s playoffs.
With the stadium situation still a barrier for financial success, a group came forward in April to propose relocating the franchise to Las Vegas.
“I think the city, which has its issues, that corporate community that’s not been very supportive of the club, is now recognizing what soccer and the Whitecaps actually mean to the city,” Garber said. “We are a very relevant club that doesn’t have a good business model.”
Ben Kule is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
FILE - Fans of the Vancouver Whitecaps MLS soccer team rally to keep the team in Vancouver, April 30, 2026, outside the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Scott Forbes had just wrapped up a College World Series news conference Friday when Skip Johnson walked into the room to pose with him for an annual picture of the head coaches next to the national championship trophy, a longtime tradition the day before the start of the finals.
“Hey, buddy,” North Carolina's Forbes said, beaming and extending his hand to the Oklahoma coach.
“You thought we were going to fight?” Johnson said, turning to reporters.
The college baseball lifers have known each other for decades, since they spent long days and nights scouting the same talent showcases and engaging in recruiting battles during long runs as assistants.
“I always thought if we met up together," Forbes told Johnson, “we'd be hunting.”
Oh, they're hunting together all right.
North Carolina will be looking for its first national title in baseball and Oklahoma for its third when the schools square off in Game 1 of the best-of-three series at Charles Schwab Field on Saturday. The start of the game was moved up five hours to 3 p.m. EDT because of a forecast calling for storms at night.
The Tar Heels and Sooners have taken different routes to reach the same destination.
North Carolina (53-12-1) has lost consecutive games just once, in early March, and has been ranked no lower than No. 4 by D1Baseball.com the last two months.
Oklahoma (41-22) was ranked as high as No. 8 and then lost six of nine series in Southeastern Conference play. The Sooners finished 11th in the SEC and were unranked when they entered the national tournament off losses in seven of nine games.
“I think the SEC just offers a great preparation, period, for this type of tournament,” OU's Trey Gambill said. “There’s no breaks. Just like in this tournament, you’re not playing any bad teams. You’re not playing any mediocre teams. You’re playing the best of the best. So the SEC just prepared us for always being ready to put our best out there.”
Both teams went 3-0 in CWS bracket play. The Tar Heels have won five straight, and the Sooners are on a season-best eight-game streak.
The Game 1 pitching matchup pits North Carolina ace Jason DeCaro (11-2) against 6-foot-6, 237-pound left-hander Cord Rager (6-3), one of three freshman starters for the Sooners. DeCaro went 6 2/3 innings and struck out nine in Carolina's 6-2 win over Mississippi last Friday. Rager walked none and struck out eight in seven innings of a 9-0 win over Alabama last Saturday.
Oklahoma will be going for the Southeastern Conference's seventh straight national title and 18th overall, which would tie the Pac-12 for most.
The SEC is assured of having the champion, runner-up or both for the 20th time since 2000. The Sooners are the 10th different SEC team to reach the finals over that span.
North Carolina is the first Atlantic Coast Conference team to make the CWS finals since Virginia in 2015.
The Tar Heels are trying to become the third ACC program to win a national title in baseball. Wake Forest won the first in 1955 and Virginia the second in 2015.
North Carolina (2006-07, 2026) and Virginia (2014-15) are the only ACC programs to play in the finals since the best-of-three format started in 2003.
DeCaro will face a Sooners team that's averaging 10.4 runs per game with 22 homers during their eight-game win streak. They've gone deep eight times in the CWS, including five in an 11-4 win over Georgia on Wednesday. OU has 45 homers in its 20 games since May 1 after hitting 46 homers in its first 43.
“What Jason’s going to do is what he’s been doing,” Forbes said. “We don’t care what the offense has been, what they’re doing, how hot they are. He’s going to go right after them with his stuff. You start being tentative, you start getting negative counts, then that offense gets even better.”
North Carolina is 28-0 when Caden Glauber pitches. The freshman leads the Tar Heels with 106 strikeouts and 13.76 per nine innings, and he has allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings over three CWS games.
Another freshman reliever, lefty Jackson Rose, pitched 4 1/3 innings of shutout relief in a 12-7 win over West Virginia and has a 2.15 ERA over 50 2/3 innings this season.
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
FILE - Field logo during an NCAA College World Series baseball game on Saturday, June 14, 2025 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Cory Eads, File)
