Vancouver Whitecaps celebrate 50 years since first game
Posted May 2, 2024 7:07 am.
Last Updated May 2, 2024 7:08 am.
Canucks playoff fever is in full swing in Vancouver, but one of the city’s other professional sports clubs is also in party mode.
The Vancouver Whitecaps are celebrating 50 years since their first-ever game.
On May 5, 1974, it all started with a North American Soccer League match against the San Jose Earthquakes, in the rain, at Empire Stadium.
It resulted in a 2-1 loss in a penalty shootout, but the crowd of 17,343 still loved it and so did the team’s first captain, Sam Lenarduzzi, who was playing alongside his kid brother, 19-year-old Bob Lenarduzzi.
Sam still lives in North Vancouver and, in a 2014 interview, said it was a dream come true to play professional soccer in his hometown. And it was almost perfect.
“It was fun to be a part of, but no one likes to lose,” he said.
Fast forward 50 years and the Whitecaps are planning ceremonies and a huge celebration Saturday at BC Place, as they take on Austin FC.
More than 100 former players representing all eras will be there.
The club is expecting a record crowd for its modern MLS era — over 30,200. That record is set to be smashed again in three weeks, when global superstar Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami comes to town on May 25.
But the Whitecaps have seen even bigger crowds.
In 1970, Vancouver won the NASL Soccer Bowl and became the city’s first professional sports team to win a major North American Championship by defeating the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
When they returned to Vancouver on Sept. 9, 1979, as many as 100,000 people lined Robson Street to salute their heroes during a championship parade.
The NASL Whitecaps also attracted a crowd of 60,342 on June 20, 1983, during the first sporting event to be played at BC Place. That match ended with a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Sounders.
Whitecaps FC are averaging more than 25,000 fans through their first five home matches of 2024 at BC Place, the highest average attendance they’ve had in their MLS era, which started in 2011.
