The Vancouver Whitecaps are for sale.
The owners of the MLS team, a group that includes majority holder Greg Kerfoot, executive chair Jeff Mallett, Steve Luczo and former NBA star Steve Nash, said Friday they have retained Goldman Sachs to assist with the process. Sportico valued the club at $470 million back in January, which ranked 27th among the league’s 29 franchises.
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The sale was prompted by estate planning, according to a source familiar with the details. Both Kerfoot and Luczo are in their mid-to-late 60s and have begun to determine what their families may keep of their assets, and what might be sold. It’s a common reason for sports teams to sell, particularly as valuations soar and the cost of keeping the assets in the family jumps in lockstep. The Boston Celtics, for example, recently hit the market for a similar reason.
“The current ownership has built a solid foundation for the Whitecaps—it is the right time for an owner with the platform, resources and ambition to enhance the club’s ability to compete at the highest levels of Major League Soccer and steward the club in realizing its significant potential,” the club said in a statement.
It’s been nearly three years since a control stake sold in MLS, when David Blitzer led a group that bought Real Salt Lake for nearly $400 million in January 2022. It’s an uncharacteristic period for the league, which saw four sales and a number of new expansion franchises in the three years prior. Since that Real Salt Lake deal, at least one team has sold in every other major U.S. league.
Kerfoot owns approximately 60% of the team, the source said. A representative for the team didn’t immediately respond to questions about the cap table or the estate planning specifics.
The Whitecaps’ roots date back to 1973 and the original North American Soccer League. Kerfoot acquired the team in November 2002 for about $30 million. The team was “deeply in debt,” with three employees working out of Kerfoot’s home, according to the release. After a few years of success in the USL, Kerfoot spearheaded the jump to MLS. The ownership group expanded at that time as well. The Whitecaps were announced in 2009 as the 17th MLS team, and began play for the 2011 season.
On the field, the team has struggled to find sustained success. Since joining MLS, the Whitecaps have won just one playoff round, in 2017, though they’ve qualified for the postseason in three of the past four years. Revenue in 2023 was about $45 million, according to Sportico‘s numbers, the second lowest total in MLS. The team averaged about 26,700 fans per game in the 54,000-seat BC Place, the seventh-highest attendance total in the league.
The team’s lease in the venue is up after the 2025 season, which will be a significant priority for whoever purchases the team. The ownership group is planning to prioritize a buyer that will keep the team in Vancouver, the source said.
Kerfoot, whose son Alexander plays in the NHL, served as the co-chair of the MLS sporting and competition committee. Mallett was an advisor in the league’s various media rights negotiations. The ownership group is also helping subsidize the salary of Canadian men’s national team coach Jesse Marsch, alongside owners from a few other Canadian professional soccer clubs.
Estate planning has a significant impact on team ownership across U.S. sports, more so than many fans realize. Not only do surging valuations make teams harder to keep in the family for tax reasons, but they also make sales more alluring for family members who aren’t directly involved in operations. It’s a frequent topic of conversation at owners’ meetings and among executives in private, and it’s driving many other changes that fans do notice, like the opening of ownership ranks to private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds. Sportico published a series of stories in 2022, headlined “Succession,” about the inheritance and estate planning challenges facing sports team owners.
With assistance from Kurt Badenhausen.
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