According to the last Canadian census, there are 46,040 people who self-identify as Korean in greater Vancouver. There is no word on whether Bob Lenarduzzi obtained contact information for each and every one of them before signing Korean Republic international Lee Young-Pyo.
It might be a good idea though. That way it would be easier to justify signing a nearly 35 year old, 5’9”, 150 lbs fullback to play on FieldTurf in one of the most physically demanding soccer leagues in the world.
It’s about ticket sales, stupid. That’s understandable, if a little depressing. That the Whitecaps might need a sales bump so early in the club’s existence was not something most people expected.
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In fairness the Caps have not claimed that Young-Pyo was signed to sell tickets. In fact, they made a point of stressing the player’s accomplishments, which are not insignificant. And if the signing was five years ago it would be impressive.
They also didn’t deny that there was a significant benefit to having a Korean legend play for the club. In talking to Marc Weber, both Paul Barber and Martin Rennie joked about the amount of attention that the player was receiving. Barber talked about how much more popular Spurs became in Korea after signing Young-Pyo. So, no one is denying that they weren’t thinking at least a little bit about the marketing here.
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with that. Teams need to sell tickets. They are free to do whatever they feel is necessary to do that.
It does raise questions though. Are the Caps struggling with renewals? If so, how badly?
When Lenarduzzi appeared on It’s Called Football this week, he was directly asked about renewals. He expressed hope that they would work out, but was upfront with the fact that they weren’t going as well as they had expected and that the losing last year caused some season ticket holders to chose to not come back in 2012.
That info is in line with anecdotal information that has been passed on to CSN from those in Vancouver.
Again, this is understandable and hardly damning. Clubs go through ups and downs all the time and even if the Caps numbers drop they will likely still be in the top third in the league.
There is really only one reason to make this a story – if the ticket crunch is influencing soccer decisions.