A tale of two sport business storylines

Note: Penny Stocks is a regular feature of The Sport Market on TEAM 1040 and teamradio.ca Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT. It airs at 10:40 a.m. PT and identifies some of the smaller sport business stories which are worth watching in various sectors of The Sport Market. This week, the imminent appointment of Andrea Shaw to an independent executive contract as the new marketing and sponsorship boss of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC represents the intersection of two Penny Stock storylines we've projected since last fall: the need for the Whitecaps to ramp up their management team in preparation for their debut in Major League Soccer in 2011 and the imminent return of significant sport business talent to the marketplace as VANOC begins to disband post-Vancouver 2010.

The leap from United Soccer Leagues to Major League Soccer is a relatively small one in terms of on-field product. It's a massive leap, however, in all other aspects of the game of soccer, from brand management to television to marketing and game presentation.

That's why the status quo was never an option for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC when Greg Kerfoot and his expanded ownership group won the bid a year ago to bring Major League Soccer to the west coast of Canada in 2011.

Kerfoot and company always had only two choices as they considered the resources they needed to compete in Major League Soccer among the likes of Toronto FC (a division of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns and operates the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL, Toronto Raptors of the NBA, Toronto Marlies of the AHL and the Air Canada Centre), the Los Angeles Galaxy (part of the global Anschutz Entertainment Group juggernaut) and the new kids on the block from Puget Sound, the Seattle Sounders FC (owned by Joe Roth, Drew Carey, Adrian Hanauer and Paul Allen but operated by Allen's Vulcan Sports & Entertainment, who also manage and market his NFL Seahawks).

The first choice was to form some sort of strategic partnership with Canucks Sports & Entertainment to gain access to the kind of customer sales and service, sponsorship and broadcast infrastructure that Toronto FC , the Galaxy and the Sounders have at their disposal.

The second choice was to expand their own in-house capacity in those areas, in part by expanding their people power and in part by bringing in those with big league experience to manage their in ticketing, branding, sponsorship and broadcast operations.

With the hiring of Paul Barber as their new Chief Executive Officer, the Whitecaps made it clear they would be taking the second approach. Barber took the reins March 1st and he will be tasked with building the organization in the year leading up to the debut of MLS here in Vancouver in March of 2011.

More evidence of what that second approach will entail will be announced soon by the Vancouver MLS franchise; the appointment of VANOC sponsorship director Andrea Shaw as the Whitecaps' new executive striker in marketing and revenue generation.

Shaw comes to the table hot on the heels of working with VANOC Executive Vice-President Dave Cobb and CEO John Furlong to help VANOC exceed the domestic sponsorship targets set for Vancouver 2010 - more than $750 million in marketing contracts and revenues for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Shaw will join the Whitecaps -- either as a full-time senior executive or on an independent executive consulting contract -- to complement the existing marketing and sales resources the team has used at the USL and now USSF-2 league levels.

In the works for months, her appointment will give the franchise the additional resources -- and corporate contacts -- they need to drive the much larger budgets of MLS. It will allow respected cause marketing specialist Andrea Wilkinson to focus on the Whitecaps Foundation, another important piece of the puzzle for the franchise, especially as it works hard to build a stronger connection with the local soccer and sports communities.

Barber and Shaw are only the beginning for the Whitecaps. The makeover will continue in the weeks and months to come.

Yet Shaw is also only the beginning for VANOC. Where her Vancouver 2010 land this year will have a big impact on professional sport here in Vancouver, the larger sport business landscape in Canada and potentially in other sectors in North America.

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