Bob Mackin
Two days before the Whitecaps’ first 2025 match at B.C. Place Stadium, Vancouver city council approved a deal with the club’s principal owner to explore building a new stadium on city-owned land.
A heavily censored, three-page memorandum of understanding (MOU) — obtained by theBreaker.news via freedom of information — contains the signatures of Greg Kerfoot and Andrew Newman, the city’s director of real estate services. Newman’s signature appears above a line that reads: “approved by Vancouver city council on Feb. 25.
On Feb. 27, the Whitecaps blanked Deportivo Saprissa 2-0 in a CONCACAF Champions League match.
From the Whitecaps memorandum of understanding with City of Vancouver for Hastings Park. (CoV/FOI)
The heading on the title page is “Confidential for Discussion Purposes Only” for “Whitecaps FC – Hastings Park” and it is marked “non-binding.”
theBreaker.news reported April 4 — the eve of a civic by-election — that the sides had agreed to the MOU and Hastings Racecourse was the preferred location. The next day, candidates from left-wing OneCity and COPE parties won the two vacant city council seats. Candidates from Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC were the lowest-ranked of all party affiliates.
One full page and paragraphs on two others are censored, leaving the MOU reader to wonder if it contained financial terms. What is visible? A confidentiality clause.
Obtained by theBreaker.news via freedom of information.
“The parties agree to keep the contents of this (censored) confidential and not to disclose it to third parties, except with prior written consent of the other party. In expressing its consent for disclosure to a third party, that consenting party may require that the third party enter into a non-disclosure agreement with the consenting party prior to such disclosure.”
In December, the Whitecaps announced they hired Goldman Sachs to find a buyer.
During Major League Soccer All-Star week in Austin, Texas, league commissioner Don Garber said July 23 that the Whitecaps “don’t have a viable stadium situation.”
The Whitecaps and BC Lions are the anchor tenants of 1983-built, 2011-renovated B.C. Place, which is undergoing $109 million in pre-FIFA World Cup 26 renovations. The Whitecaps were forced to move a home playoff game last fall to Portland due to a scheduling conflict with Supercross.
Hastings Racecourse has operated as a thoroughbred horseracing venue since 1892. Slot machines were added in 2008, but the casino has not lived up to expectations for leaseholder Great Canadian Entertainment. On June 6, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation announced it was negotiating to buy the casino and lease.
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