Vancouver FC, the closest team to most Whatcom County fans, has emerged as one of Major League Soccer's premier clubs just as BC Place prepares to host seven FIFA World Cup games. However, the team's financial struggles may lead to its departure from BC Place, leaving the Canadian Premier League's Vancouver FC as the area's top competitor. Whitecaps executives say they cannot compete financially with the 29 other league clubs because of an unfavorable lease agreement with BC Place, which is owned by the provincial government. Without new local owners, the team could relocate to a U.S. city, leaving Vancouver FC of the Canadian Premier League as the area's highest-profile competitor with the Langley home stadium of Willoughby just across the border. The Whitecaps have reached the MLS Cup playoffs in eight of their 11 seasons, including advancing to the 2025 final. They are also four-time defending Canadian champions. Vancouver's attendance has risen above 20,000 a game despite playing in a cave-like atmosphere at BC Place. The team's success and the men's World Cup Canadian debut have left a bittersweet taste for fans like Simon Fida and Dean Massignani, who have followed the Whitecaps in all their iterations since the late 1970s. "We have a World Cup, and our team might leave," Fida lamented. Ownership is trying to offload the club at the very moment the Whitecaps could capitalize on the World Cup to expand their local profile. Whitecaps chief executive Axel Schuster said in a January news conference, "We have been the second-best team in North America, and we have been, again, the last team in revenues in the MLS. That doesn't fit together."