San Jose Earthquakes and Vancouver Whitecaps are MLS' best teams — so why are both in such dire straits?

What does it say about MLS' team-level economics if its two strongest teams are both victims of relocation — one deep in the past and one looming in the future — and struggling to find interested buyers?

Nothing good, surely. But to hear league commissioner Don Garber tell it, it's never been a better time to get financially involved in MLS.

"Ted Leonsis said the worst decision he ever made in sports was not buying D.C. United for $35M -- they’re raising money at $950M," Garber said earlier this year. "David Blitzer looked at MLS for many, many years -- could have bought the Philadelphia Union for $30M, ended up coming into Real Salt Lake for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. 

“At that time, they didn’t believe what MLS would be able to do, how it would capture a new audience -- the most diverse audience in sports.”

Questions of revenue

Garber's nine-figure valuation quotes are impressive, but they gloss over the day-to-day reality of most MLS clubs. The teams still capture much of their revenue from game-day receipts — tickets, parking, concessions, stadium sponsorships, etc — and when those dip, the team's value dips, too.

Vancouver's complicated "lease" of its stadium means it captures just 12% of its game-day revenue. It's tried to negotiate a better deal with the stadium owners, but it's been unsuccessful, and MLS has been unwilling to throw its weight behind the team in those talks.

"As of now, at this moment, no one, not one single one, is interested in buying even 1% of this club,” Vancouver CEO Axel Schuster told reporters, “because all of them think that our setup here and the market and the situation we are in is not something where you can invest."

San Jose doesn't face the same challenges as Vancouver, but it ranked 24th of the 30 MLS teams for revenue in 2025. Its expected value of ~$585 million makes it only marginally more valuable than a brand-new MLS franchise, all of which are valued at $500 million flat.

Mixed messaging

MLS fans can't shake the feeling that if the league wanted to help either of these clubs, it could. But with 30 teams in the league already and no plans for additional expansion, it certainly feels like Garber is viewing Vancouver's plight as an opportunity to get a higher-value city like Las Vegas or Phoenix into the league without expanding MLS' footprint.

A move like that makes sense on the surface, but it flies in the face of what actually drives revenue — and therefore growth — in this league.

MLS isn't the NFL. It's rare to see new fans dropping by a match just because they're in town for the weekend. History, community and connection drive the in-stadium experience, and therefore they drive the lion's share of MLS' revenue, too. 

If MLS relocates Vancouver like it relocated San Jose twenty years ago, it's devaluing those three things — for Vancouver in the short term and for the league as a whole in the long term. It's an approach that would put MLS' operational moves at odds with its very real financial drivers ... and that, frankly, makes the league look disconnected and unserious.

The San Jose Earthquakes will host the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday. It'll be the biggest event of the MLS season ... and a perfect showcase of the operational struggles that keep this league from competing with the world's best.