Whitecaps co-Owner Jeff Mallett is confident that the club is "set up to compete with the MLS big spenders" in the Western Conference, according to Marc Weber of the Vancouver PROVINCE. Mallett said, “The league will give us the opportunity to achieve what we would like to as a football club ... because we are putting the effort in (at the league level).” He added, “I don’t foresee in the next five years (MLS) getting top-heavy, where the so-called bottom clubs, like in England, you’re excited on the first day, but you have a pretty good idea that you’re not going to sniff (the title).” Mallett also said of primary importance for MLS growth over the next five years is improving “the product on the field.” Weber reports Whitecaps President Bob Lenarduzzi does not see a "parallel between the injection of big-name, big-money talent into MLS and the type of star-chasing that killed the old NASL.” He did say that the team wants Canadian players to "make up half the MLS roster and be playing ‘meaningful minutes’ in five to 10 years." Lenarduzzi: “We don’t think that’s unrealistic." Weber notes the Whitecaps have the "most homegrown players in MLS” with eight, and 13 academy centers "across three provinces.” A new center is set to be announced in Ontario "later this week” (Vancouver PROVINCE 7/14).
