VANCOUVER - Basking in the Olympic afterglow, the Vancouver Whitecaps have kicked off a one-year countdown to their acension to Major League Soccer.
Expansion teams in Vancouver and Portland will be the 17th and 18th franchises to join the league in March 2011.
The Whitecaps will play the first few home games of their inaugural season at a 27,500-seat temporary stadium at the Pacific National Exhibition's Empire Fields, before moving to the $458 million renovated BC Place.
Whitecaps CEO Paul Barber says that during the 2010 Winter Games, the city showed the world what a fantastic community it is for organizing and delivering world-class sport.
Some 5,000 deposits for Vancouver MLS season tickets sold out in less than 48 hours when they went on sale earlier this month. The Whitecaps will play in the United Soccer Leagues this season.
The MLS is hoping Vancouver and Portland will follow in the footsteps of Toronto and Seattle, two recent expansion clubs that have proven hugely successful. A new team in Philadelphia is making its debut this season.
