Mr. Soccer set for life!
BY KENT GILCHRIST
Thirty-six years after being loaned to the Vancouver Whitecaps by Reading in England, East Vancouver's Bob Lenarduzzi considers his finest achievement is being able to "hang around" and earn a living in soccer the entire time.
It's a little grander than that. Lenarduzzi has been the face of the sport forever. When historians look at how soccer has evolved from that 1979 Soccer Bowl championship team to the Whitecaps first Major League Soccer crown, Lenarduzzi's fingerprints will be everywhere.
He played more NASL games (312) than anyone and represented Canada 47 times as a player, including the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, the only time Canada has qualified. Canada's highest FIFA ranking was 40th, when Lenarduzzi coached the national team. You get the point.
If he cut himself shaving he probably bleeds Whitecaps' blue and white.
In 1979 after the 'Caps won the NASL title, they were bigger than the Vancouver Canucks or the B.C. Lions. On the eve of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the frenzy around the Canucks' chances, fans might have trouble believing that, but it's true. Unfortunately, the NASL packed it in 1984.
But with the Whitecaps on the verge of a new adventure next year into Major League Soccer, the team president says he has finally reached the point where, "I don't have to worry about getting a real job.
"Not quite, but I'm this close," he says with his thumb and finger less than an eighth of an inch apart while float planes land and take off outside his office window overlooking Burrard Inlet.
Even though the Whitecaps organization has grown and its titles with it, the team president, who turns 55 on May 1, is as excited as he's ever been. He said he had butterflies before Sunday's home opener, a 2-0 win over Minnesota.
With the addition of CEO Paul Barber from Tottenham Hotspur at great expense to run the business side in preparation for the MLS, Lenarduzzi can concentrate on securing the club's training centre.
It's a $31-million facility, ($17.5 million of it pledged from the province) with eight fields and a clubhouse, player lounge and dorms. Canadian Soccer Associations programs will share the space.
It's as key to the development of soccer in Canada as having Vancouver, Toronto and likely Montreal in the MLS. (Lenarduzzi believes the reason Canada made the Olympics and World Cup in the 1980s was because of the NASL and the Whitecaps.) It was supposed to be in Delta, but that deal fell through.
"Coquitlam, Richmond, Surrey, Langley and UBC are all interested," he says.
The difficulty is coming up with the necessary 30 to 40 available acres. The 'Caps need it to attract the best European teams to play exhibition games. They also need it to nurture more players for national programs and to provide a reliable supply of talent to the MLS. Lenarduzzi doesn't look too anxious.
Having watched Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders enter the fray, he's convinced Vancouver will do better. Toronto has 16,500 season ticket-holders and 15,000 more on a waiting list playing at 20,000-seat BMO Field. The Sounders have 33,000 season-ticket holders in Qwest Field.
"Vancouver," Lenarduzzi says, "is a better market."
After 36 years he should have a pretty good feel for things.
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