WHO'S ON THE V LIST? - Virani Real Estate Advisors

LIFESTYLE by Marcie Good
Building Passion
For Soccer
Bob Lenarduzzi looks out a window from the fi fth-fl oor Water Street
offi ce of the Whitecaps soccer club, down to a mess of railroad tracks
scattered with cars. He’s passed by this scene, with its stunning
backdrop of ocean and mountains, every workday for the past three
years. It seems an unlikely place for a fi eld of dreams, this narrow strip
of land long used for shipping goods in and out of Vancouver’s port.
But now, the landmark soccer stadium that fi rst seemed an impossible
dream is almost within grasp. “It’s been a long time coming,” he says,
with his friendly grin. “But I believe we’ll get there.”
>>>As the public face of the Whitecaps organization, Lenarduzzi has
taken his share of pummeling over the past year from opponents of the
$65-million project.
>>>In July, city council fi nally gave the Gastown stadium a conditional
go-ahead. While the club must still address issues such as organizing
traffi c fl ow and how the design will fi t with the heritage character of the
area, the focus has shifted from defense to offense.
A state-of-the-art coliseum here will have an appeal far greater than
a straight sports facility, especially as questions are raised about
the future of BC Place. Groups including the Vancouver Symphony,
the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, the organizers of
the 2009 World Police and Fire Games, concert production giants
House of Blues and Clear Channel, and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic
organizing committee have all indicated they would like to use the venue.
>>>But this will be a soccer stadium fi rst. To make it a success, the
Whitecaps must be a team worth watching. Now, a sell-out crowd
at Swangard Stadium totals 5,700. Can soccer generate the kind of
successful fan base in Vancouver that hockey enjoys?
“Absolutely,” says Lenarduzzi, without hesitation. First, it’s been here
before. But when he played for the Whitecaps in the early 1980s,
Empire Stadium was regularly packed with 28,000 people. After the
North American Soccer League folded in 1984, successive teams in
Vancouver struggled to bring audiences back.
>>>Things changed for the better in 2002, when software developer
Greg Kerfoot bought the team. He has been willing to inject the kind
of cash necessary for the club to expand. Adding sales staff to what
had been a bare-bones operation was the fi rst step. No one knows
professional soccer in Vancouver better than Lenarduzzi, whose long
and celebrated career as a Whitecap and consequently 86er began in
38 | THE V LIST | FALL 06 | www.thevlist.com
“It seems an unlikely place for a fi eld
of dreams, this narrow strip of land
long used for shipping goods in and
out of Vamcouver’s port. But now,
the landmark soccer stadium that fi rst
seemed an impossible dream is almost
within grasp.”