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T HE VA N C O U V E R C O U R I E R F R I D AY, S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 0
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Team will eventually move into a revamped B.C. Place
Whitecaps welcome former Tottenham executive Scott Steedman
Contributing writer
P
aul Barber knows he’s the odd man out at the Vancouver Whitecaps branding launch. When the soccer team’s new CEO gets up to introduce Bob Lenarduzzi, the club’s president and most illustrious former player, he begins with an apology. “I’m sorry about not being tall, Italian and good-looking,” he begins in his gentle, well-mannered English voice. “I’m a bit worried.” It’s June 8, and the diminutive Englishman, barely four months into the job, actually seems remarkably unworried. He’s a marketing man and he knows how to win over a crowd. He also seems to enjoy a challenge. Six months ago, he was executive director of Tottenham Hotspur, one of soccer’s greatest and oldest clubs. Barber grew up in North London near Tottenham’s mythical White Hart Lane stadium and cheered the team as a small boy with his dad and little brother. Working at Spurs—yet alone running the club—was literally a boyhood dream. Then he threw it all in to come and do the same thing in Vancouver. Rewind back to March 2009, when the Whitecaps learned that their application to become the 17th team in Major League Soccer (MLS) had been approved. Knowing that they had just two years to get ready for the big leagues, one of their first moves was hiring Barber.
The rabid group of Whitecaps fans known as the Southsiders hope a change in the front office photo Jason Lang translates into on-field success. At today’s event he has helped the born-again team past another milestone: unveiling a new look and logo. It’s a slick and slightly bland concoction, three jagged white triangles rising over blue reflections, a nod to the mountains and surf of the city’s surrounds. Barber has a lot more to tackle between now and March 2011, when the team will play their first MLS game. Starting with a shirt sponsor (since announced as Bell Canada, in a deal rumoured to
be worth more than $4 million a year); a new $31-million training facility (ground almost got broken in Delta, but the local council got cold feet); completing not one but two stadiums for their debut season (they’ll kick off at a temporary set-up at Empire Field, where the Lions are now playing, then move to the revamped B.C. Place in the summer); and selling a mighty wodge of season tickets (14,000 of the targeted 16,500 deposits sold, at last count).
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I
n person, Barber is disarmingly soft-spoken. He’s 42, with a boyish face and crew cut that make him seem 10 years younger. But his dulcet tones exude the confidence of a very successful executive who’s managed a sports franchise with an annual revenue of $245 million. And who is obviously not afraid of a leap in the dark. Continued on page 5
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And he might also want to remember to put together a competitive team, so they don’t get humiliated by local rivals Seattle Sounders (who joined MLS last year) or Portland Timbers (also joining in 2011) or, worse yet, Toronto F.C. (veterans now in their third season). The team may even try to land a big name “designated player,” now that L.A. has David Beckham and New York has signed up French star Thierry Henry.
Which still doesn’t answer the question: What is Paul Barber doing in Vancouver? Why would any sane man walk away from his dream job to start from scratch in the 17th-most soccery city in North America, the last continent on Earth to embrace the round version of football? The way Lenarduzzi—or Bobby, as everyone calls him—tells the story, it was Barber who approached the Whitecaps. Two of the club’s owners, Steve Nash (yes, that one) and Jeff Mallett (who helped build Yahoo!), were visiting Spurs to discuss buying into the team. “They were talking about the Whitecaps, and Paul said, is there an opportunity there?” explains Bobby. “Jeff was kinda taken aback, didn’t really know if he [Barber] was asking for himself. And it became clear that he was.” From the banks of the Thames to the shores of the Georgia Strait. Who would have thought? “I wouldn’t have!” laughs Lenarduzzi. “He was a Spurs fan growing up, and now he has the top job and he wants to leave!”
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