When Bob Lenarduzzi thinks about the popularity of the modern-day Vancouver Whitecaps and Major League Soccer, he's reminded of the craze that surrounded the original Whitecaps and the loop they played in, the North American Soccer League.
But, in Lenarduzzi's view, there's one key difference.
"The difference this time around is, it's sustainable," the president of the Whitecaps said during a Tuesday visit to Prince George. "I refer to the original Whitecaps era as lightning in a bottle. We had a five-year ascent from 1974 to 79. In 1979 when we won [the] Soccer Bowl [playoff championship] and had 100,000 people in downtown Vancouver welcoming us back from New York, from there to 1984 we were done. We were finished in '84. The league was gone and you wouldn't have ever thought that possible when you were standing downtown and had all those people there.
"This time around, MLS has done a good job of expanding at the right times and now has a commitment to expand to 24 [teams] by 2020."
On Tuesday, while the 58-year-old Lenarduzzi was conducting business with the Prince George Youth Soccer Association and the Whitecaps FC Northern Academy Centre, MLS announced expansion to Orlando City, Fla., for 2015. Orlando City SC will become the league's 21st franchise.
The Whitecaps began their MLS existence in 2011. They made playoffs in 2012 (11-13-10 record) and were even stronger this season (13-12-9) but finished two spots back of a post-season berth. The Whitecaps played their final game of the regular schedule Oct. 27 and, in front of an announced crowd of 21,000 at BC Place, defeated the Colorado Rapids 3-0.
Back in the late 1970s, the Whitecaps -- with a young Lenarduzzi in uniform -- played their home games at Empire Stadium. In their 1979 championship season, which saw them beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies 2-1 in the Soccer Bowl in East Rutherford, N.J., they averaged almost 23,000 fans per home game and that number climbed to almost 27,000 in 1980. Unfortunately, by that time, the NASL was starting to crumble under the weight of financial pressures. Over-expansion, an economic recession and disputes between the league and the players' union were all factors.
Lenarduzzi is relatively happy with the progress of his current team, a squad that featured MLS's top shooter, Camilo Sanvezzo. The Brazilian-born Sanvezzo led the league with 22 goals in 32 games and was the Whitecaps' first-ever recipient of the MLS Golden Boot. In that season-ending game against the Rapids, the 25-year-old Sanvezzo scored all three of Vancouver's goals and, in doing so, finished with one more than Mike Magee of the Chicago Fire.
The only bitter pill for Lenarduzzi is the fact the Whitecaps missed the playoffs.
"We were in it right up until the second-to-last game of the season and unfortunately we couldn't duplicate what we did the year before, which was get to the playoffs," he said. "But we have a good core of players and we're in a coach search as we speak."
On Oct. 29, two days after the season-ending win against the Rapids, the Whitecaps announced they were not renewing the contract of head coach Martin Rennie.
"The fact that we made a coach change might suggest that we don't feel [we are heading in the right direction]," Lenarduzzi said. "We're thankful to Martin Rennie for coming in and we're a much better club now than when he arrived, but we feel like with the inconsistency of the last two years -- even the year we made the playoffs -- in both second halves of those seasons we couldn't maintain the form we had in the first half. As a result, what we're looking to do now is get someone in that can maintain that over a whole season and get us to the next level."
Lenarduzzi said the Whitecaps have already interviewed several candidates for the position.
"We have one person in particular that we're trying to confirm and there are others, if he isn't able to do so, that we think can do a good job for us."
