Taxpayers footing bill after Cap-in-hand strategy works

The Vancouver Whitecaps will finally make their debut at the National Soccer Development Centre at the University of British Columbia on Feb. 26 -- the day before they unveil their 2013 uniform.

Will Premier Christy Clark show up for a photo op? The training centre is in her Vancouver-Point Grey riding. The Whitecaps' general partner, Greg Kerfoot, is a personal friend of hers and a BC Liberal Party donor of almost $37,000 since 2005 through a personal donation, his company Inspirit Group and the Whitecaps. Media-shy Kerfoot, who has never sat down for an interview since buying the Whitecaps in 2002, is a 1983 UBC computer science graduate.

Clark wasn't there when the training centre was announced on Sept. 6, 2012. B.C. taxpayers are subsidizing the facility through a $14.5 million grant. UBC is providing the land. The Whitecaps are supposedly paying the remaining $15 million.

The whole shebang was originally a $17.5 million gift of taxpayers' money to the Whitecaps from Premier Gordon Campbell on May 2, 2009 -- 10 days before that provincial election -- as a desperate ploy to get parachute candidate Wally Oppal elected for the Liberals. Vicki Huntington eked out a victory as an independent. Delta council eventually nixed the Whitecaps' application. Sites in Surrey and Burnaby were considered, but the Whitecaps' brass evidently grew impatient with the bureaucracies in those municipalities. Sources tell me the feeling was mutual. The Whitecaps already benefitted heavily from taxpayer subsidies as the primary tenant of B.C. Place Stadium, which was renovated for $514 million despite Kerfoot having the financing and desire to build his own stadium. 

On Jan. 30, the Whitecaps issued this progress report.

Via Freedom of Information, I tried to get the Whitecaps' application for funding, the government's business case and evaluation, and approval letter. There is supposedly a 59-page business case for taxpayers subsidizing the privately owned Whitecaps, but the government refused to disclose it to me based on "cabinet confidences."

The heavily censored documents they did send me (see below) include Treasury Board requests, Whitecaps' internal correspondence and correspondence with Liberal politicians. (The Sept. 8, 2010 Treasury Board funding request letter from then Finance Minister Colin Hansen to Sport Minister Ida Chong was, coincidentally, on the same day as the 31st anniversary of the North American Soccer League Whitecaps' winning Soccer Bowl.)

Evidently, the government wasn't going to write a cheque without a promise that amateur soccer would benefit. A July 31, 2012 letter by Whitecaps' COO Rachel Lewis to Chong said UBC would get 65% of time on the fields. On the same day, B.C. Soccer Association executive director Bjorn Osieck wrote to the government in support of the Whitecaps, pointing out the 120,000 registered players in B.C. -- making it the province's biggest team sport.

Whitecaps' chairman John Furlong wrote to Chong's deputy minister, Don Fast, on Aug. 2, 2012 to reiterate the playing time commitment. He said the artificial turf field and two new grass fields would be available for 3,920 hours of playing time each year. 

Of that, an estimated 2,019 hours of field access time has been committed for community playing time for BCSA Premier League, Vancouver United Soccer Club, school physical education or soccer teams, community clinics and tournaments, youth sports camps and a partnership with the University Neighbourhood Association. A lofty promise, but let's hope Furlong, Lewis and the Whitecaps stay true to their word. (Oddly enough, the records released don't include any endorsement from the Canadian Soccer Association, despite the complex being labelled the "National Soccer Development Centre.")

The most interesting document? The Feb. 14, 2012 letter to Lewis from Kerfoot. While it was heavily censored by the government, it does contain Mr. Kerfoot's signature. For someone who has taken overwhelming efforts to keep himself shielded from the public eye, it is rather odd that the Whitecaps didn't oppose the publication of his signature. 

(Note: the Whitecaps' unveiling of their 2013 uniform is an invite-only affair at the Rocky Mountaineer Station on Feb. 27. Furlong is chairman of both companies. Furlong was subject to new allegations in a Jan. 21 B.C. Supreme Court defence filing by journalist Laura Robinson. None of the allegations has been tested or proven in court and no trial date has been set. Furlong's official court response in the defamation lawsuit that he launched last November is overdue. A media statement attributed to his family was published Jan. 23, claiming he is innocent of the many abuse allegations that were published by the Georgia Straight on Sept. 27, 2012. "These shocking allegations are without merit and portray a character whom none of us recognizes," said the statement.)

Caps in hand: Whitecaps seek and receive subsidy by BobMackin

Political football as Liberals kick-off campaign

The Vancouver Whitecaps finally have their long-sought training nest.

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The provincial government kicked in $14.5 million to the $32.5 million National Soccer Development Centre at the University of B.C.'s Thunderbird Park for a trio of natural grass pitches, a pair of synthetic turf fields and a field house. Another $3 million is on the table for future replacement of the artificial turf. It's near the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, the white elephant of the 2010 Winter Olympics where few spectator events happen. The B.C. government paid about $19 million of the $47.8 million bill for the Games' secondary hockey venue. 

The soccer complex was originally earmarked for Delta and announced amid the last provincial election campaign on May 2, 2009 -- 10 days before the BC Liberals won another term. Premier Gordon Campbell had announced $17.5 million from the province towards a $31.5 million complex on 20-hectare John Oliver Park. 

But the attempt to buy the soccer vote near tony Tsawwassen got the yellow card from voters and municipal authorities. Liberal parachute candidate Wally Oppal lost on a recount to independent Vicki Huntingdon. By February 2010, Delta municipal council grew frustrated with the Whitecaps and nixed the project. 

Municipal land in Surrey and Burnaby was also eyed and the Whitecaps didn't endear themselves to those city halls. Enter UBC, which isn't a municipality (read: less bureaucracy) and happens to be in the Vancouver-Point Grey riding represented by Premier Christy Clark. Whitecaps' secretive and wealthy principal owner Greg Kerfoot is a personal friend of the premier. In seven donations since 2005, Kerfoot has given the BC Liberal party $36,790 via the Whitecaps and his company, Inspirit Group. 

Tech tycoon Kerfoot, a 1983 UBC computer science graduate, could afford to pay the whole bill himself for the training centre. Through a real estate agent, he was flogging this West Vancouver waterfront mansion on Stearman Beach for almost $10 million and seeking Vancouver city hall approval to build an office tower in downtown Vancouver at the southeast corner of Cordova and Granville. Back in 2005, the Whitecaps proposed using $60 million of Kerfoot's money to build an outdoor stadium north of Gastown. He already bought the land, worth $20 million. City council sent that hot potato to Port Metro Vancouver, where talks stalled for good. The Whitecaps eventually scored a sweetheart rent deal in the renovated B.C. Place Stadium. B.C. Pavilion Corporation refuses to tell me what, if anything, the Whitecaps pay for rent.  

The Sept. 6 announcement happened in Clark's riding, but the Premier was not there! Clark attended the annual Order of British Columbia awards ceremony at Government House in Victoria. Asked where she was in the afternoon, press secretary Mike Morton told me on Sept. 10 "the short answer is meetings." He suggested I make a Freedom of Information request for her agenda if I wanted to know more.  

Ex-sport minster Ida Chong stood-in for newcomer Bill Bennett for the first major spending announcement/re-announcement since Clark shuffled the cabinet a day earlier.  Burnaby MLA Richard Lee, North Vancouver MLA Jane Thornthwaite and Vancouver MLA Colin Hansen (Clark's 2011 by-election campaign chair) joined Whitecaps' president Bob Lenarduzzi for a photo opportunity with the UBC mascot. (Have the Whitecaps' mascot Spike and executive chairman John Furlong suddenly become camera-shy?)

The scheduling could have been a very clever tactic, to keep Premier Photo-Op away from cameras at what was the de facto kickoff of the fall 2012 phase of her 2013 re-election campaign (however futile it may be). 

Make no mistake, the joint government/Whitecaps/UBC news conference was to curry favour with a large portion of voters. Soccer is the biggest participatory team sport in B.C. The B.C. Soccer Association claims 100,000 youth players and 20,000 adult players, plus 2,000 registered referees. That's a lot families and their votes could mean a lot to the desperate-to-stay-in-power governing Liberals next May.

The Vancouver Whitecaps and the B.C. Liberals. Both mired in a slump.

Furlong: white toques to Whitecaps

It seems Vancouver Whitecaps chief executive Paul Barber's chair was barely cold when the ownership group began thinking of re-filling it.

The media had been told that president Bob Lenarduzzi and chief operating officer Rachel Lewis would run the Major League Soccer franchise as a duo since the former Tottenham Hotspur executive announced his shock resignation on Dec. 9, 2011. Barber worked his last day on Feb. 29. (Sources told me Barber was frustrated that his decision-making authority fell victim to principal owner Greg Kerfoot's micromanaging.)

On April 12, part-owner Jeff Mallett surprised the gathered media at the Hyatt Regency Hotel by introducing John Furlong, the chief executive of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee, as the club's new executive chairman. Lenarduzzi and Lewis will report to Furlong. Furlong, who served VANOC at the pleasure of Premier Gordon Campbell, will report weekly to Kerfoot, the mysterious, media-shy West Vancouver tech tycoon.

Furlong told the media the idea was hatched at a dinner with Kerfoot about six weeks earlier. The job is a full-time gig, without an equity stake in the company, that includes a desk on the same floor in Gastown's Landing where he led the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation and its successor, VANOC, after the International Olympic Committee chose Vancouver in 2003 to host the 21st Olympic Winter Games.

Irish-born, 61-year-old Furlong chairs the Own the Podium advisory board, is a director of Whistler Blackcomb Holdings and was recently promoted to chairman of the Rocky Mountaineer Railtours' board (more about that below). The Whitecaps' gig gets precedence for Furlong, who did not receive

any IOC or Canadian Olympic Committee appointment after the 2010 Games.

Furlong, who grew up playing centreback, professes a lifelong love for the beautiful game. He recounted how he thrilled he was to watch England's 1966 World Cup win live on TV. He may owe a small debt of gratitude to the world's most powerful soccer executive for helping Vancouver get the Games.

In the following excerpt from his 2011-published memoir, Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics that Changed a Country (Douglas & McIntyre), Furlong revealed details about the 2002 night he spent with FIFA president Sepp Blatter at VANOC founding chairman Jack Poole's ranch. (Many have called for Blatter to resign amid longstanding allegations of bribery and FIFA's reluctance to immediately implement recommendations from well-respected transparency expert Mark Pieth's Independent Governance Committee.)

The bid process could hardly be described as logical. Sometimes we sought out Hail Mary opportunities on the off-chance something might work out. Delegates were scattered all over the world, so face time with them as often hard to arrange. When we had an opportunity, we pounced it immediately. One such occasion occurred that August. Canada was hosting the women's U19 World Cup of soccer. Sepp Blatter, the iconic head of the International Federation of Association Football, or FIFA as it is commonly known, was in the country and, we were told, was going to be passing through Vancouver on his way to Edmonton, where the tournament was being held. Working with our friends at the Canadian Soccer Association, we arranged to squirrel him away for an evening to talk Olympics. Sepp was an IOC member and an influential one at that. We wanted to make an indelible impression on him. We decided this would be a night for Jack Poole and his wife, Darlene, to put on the ritz at their sprawling estate in Mission, a rural community 90 minutes east of Vancouver. The plan was to send a helicopter for Sepp and fly him to Jack's place, while showing off a little of the local geography at the same time.

We met Sepp when he touched down on the estate's landing pad. Yes, Jack had his own landing pad. The Pooles poured on the charm. The steak was brilliant and so was the apple pie. We had a great evening talking to one of the most influential sports kings in the world, who waxed eloquently about sport politics, including those that surrounded the IOC.

Sepp was in his element -- at the centre of attention with no pressure. I asked him at one point what his vision was for the game of soccer. "I will not be satisfied until every child on the planet owns a soccer ball," he said. And he meant it. Sepp was a formidable man, short and stocky and with an imposing face, who seemed to dominate his surroundings the way someone much bigger might. By the end of the night we were friends. As always, we didn't ask for Sepp's vote but we were all smiles when he told us we could count on him.

(Media scrum video courtesy SendtoNews/Whitecaps).

John Furlong named executive chair of Whitecaps FC
John Furlong interview

For the record: Vancouver hosted the North American Soccer League's last single-game Soccer Bowl in 1983 at B.C. Place Stadium between the Tulsa Roughnecks and Toronto Blizzard. The NASL championship was contested one more time in 1984 in a best-of-three format between the Chicago Sting and Toronto. The Sting swept the Blizzard in two games, winning the trophy in Toronto.

Meanwhile, Furlong opted not to comment on the ongoing labour dispute between Rocky Mountaineer and its unionized on-board attendants from Teamsters local 31. This, despite being the chairman of the upscale tourist train company's board.

"You need to talk to Randy (Powell, president) about that, that's how we've chosen to do it," Furlong said. "I think this is an ongoing dispute and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to talk."

Workers were locked out last June and the company intends to continue using replacements. The company also chopped limbs off trees on adjacent public land, but claims it was a mistake.

Exclusive: B.C. Place Stadium's new logo

Behold, the new logo for B.C. Place Stadium, which reopens Sept. 30 from a $563 million, taxpayer-funded renovation.

The two-tone blue design incorporates stylized versions of the new roof-support masts and cables that now figure prominently on the Vancouver skyline and will nicely complement Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps similar color scheme.

By virtue of playing at least 17 times a year in B.C. Place, the Whitecaps will be the 1983-built stadium's prime tenant. This logo replaces the 2006 design of the fabric domed roof that was deflated in May 2010 and removed.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show that Karacters Design was paid $23,030 on Feb. 25 for work on a logo.

The word "place" is a key word in the logo. Some or all of this insignia is a place-holder until the stadium's new corporate-sponsored name is revealed. Frontrunner Telus is the official telecommunications goods and services provider and plans to heavily market its Optik TV service on the giant, shoebox-style, centre-hung scoreboard. B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore did not deny Telus would be the naming rights purchaser when he was asked on July 31 and Sept. 7.