Victoria Highlanders with Big Plans

As if we needed proof that the Pacific Northwest was the hotbed of football any further, it has come from an unlikely place. Portland and Vancouver will have Major League Soccer teams in 2011, Seattle has the largest crowds already in the league, and it is not secret that the Kitsap Pumas in Bremerton are highly ambitious in their view of their likely landing strip in the pyramid of football in the USA.

But now, further evidence is coming from a fifth town. The Victoria Times Colonist reports that the delightfully named Victoria Highlanders have ambitions of its own to bring professional football to Vancouver Island.

The Colonist correspondent Cleve Dheensaw writes:

‘In announcing their upcoming friendly against pro club Edmonton FC on Aug. 8 at 6 p.m. at Bear Mountain Stadium, the Victoria Highlanders organization appeared to give every indication it is testing the pro waters for potentially 2012. Edmonton FC is in the new North American Soccer League, which is vying against the USL to become the main feeder league to Major League Soccer, which will grow by two teams next season when the Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers join the fold as expansion teams.’

Highlanders General manager Drew Finerty confirmed this.

“It’s no secret we’ve contemplated moving up levels,” Finerty told Dheensaw. The club currently plays in the amateur United Soccer League Premier Development League alongside the Kitsap Pumas, the Portland Timbers U 23 side and the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency squad. “Where we will end up is still to be determined.

These games against the pros [the Highlanders played the Austin Aztex of the USL last year] gives our players, corporate sponsors and fan base an idea of what to expect. It’s a way to measure ourselves. We’re hoping the city embraces this [pro] brand. That decision will be made by the USSF [United States Soccer Federation] and once those dominoes fall, we’ll know better what our position will be in terms of which pro teams are in our region and in which league,” Finerty added.

Finerty made a clarion call to the people of Victoria and one presumes the rest of the Island to prove they want pro football, making the attendance at the Edmonton friendly a litmus test of the realisticity of the Highlander’s ambitions.

“I get the sense people in Victoria want it. But we need at least 2,000 fans out for the game against Edmonton FC to show that this market is interested in this level of soccer,” Finerty told the Colonist.

The stadium could be an issue. Victoria has Royal Athletic Park which was used for the Under 20 World Cup in 2007 hosting two Scotland games. Nowadays the Highlanders play at Bear Mountain Stadium, which has hydro towers on the north side. These would need to be removed to allow for the further development of the stadium.

Finerty told the Colonist a figure of 5,000 capacity was their intended target.

“We need a bigger stadium but I can’t see why we couldn’t draw 3,000 or 4,000 like the Vistas used to back in the day [at Royal Athletic Park],” Ian Bridge, a member of Canada’s 1986 World Cup team, and a team mate of Whitecaps GM Bob Lenarduzzi, told Dheensaw.

Finerty described the series against Edmonton FC as a “litmus test” for Victoria’s pro soccer ambitions.

Full Article: Victoria team sets sights on NASL

Tags: Portland and Vancouver

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