Excitement is building for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC thanks to the team signing German superstar Thomas Müller.
Whether the move will pay financial dividends is yet to be seen, but the team is set to benefit from more fan interest in buying tickets as well as merchandise.
The Major League Soccer (MLS) team did not initially release details of Müller’s contract but team CEO Axel Schuster told BIV this afternoon that Müller agreed to what might appear to be an extremely low salary of $600,000 for the remaining part of the season, which would be nine games if Müller starts Aug. 17. The season also includes the second leg of a Canadian Championship semi-final plus a final game if the team advances.
Playoff compensation for players comes through a bonus pool shared by teams that reach the post-season.
Müller made 20.5 million Euros in his most recent season with the German Bundesliga's FC Bayern Munich.
Some reports have speculated that the Whitecaps would pay Müller $685,000, but Schuster said it was $600,000.
"He said also from the beginning, 'If it just would be about money, I shouldn't come to MLS. I should go to Saudi Arabia,'" Schuster said of Müller.
Müller was also attracted in part by the Whitecaps' winning ways given that they are second in MLS' Western Conference, with 13 wins and six draws out of 24 games, Schuster said. The star has said in TV interviews that he discussed coming to Vancouver with former teammate Alphonso Davies, who played for the Whitecaps between 2016 and 2018, but this was after his decision to come to Vancouver had been made.
MLS teams are allowed to have up to three so-called designated players, who can earn unlimited amounts but only cost their teams $743,750 each annually toward the league’s mandated $5,950,000 salary cap for all senior-team players.
Schuster said that the team bought out the contract of injured player Sam Adekugbe and was able to offer Müller only $600,000 salary in order to stay within its salary cap.
The transaction needed league approval, he said, because the league does not want teams to bring in star players and pay them comparatively small salaries for a year or two as non-designated players, and then pay that player a windfall in the following season as a designated player.
Schuster said he is very confident that Müller will return next year, when the team would make him a designated player with a contract that would make him “the best paid player in the history of the club.”
He added that following Müller’s signing, the team has seen a bump in ticket sales and has now reached its revenue goals for all remaining home games.
Ticket sales also generate secondary revenue for the team because the Whitecaps would also get a slice of concession revenue at BC Place.
“There is excitement,” Vancouver Ticket & Tour Service owner Kingsley Bailey told BIV.
“People want to see this guy. He is unbelievable—a generational player, and he's going to definitely bring some credibility to this organization.”
Despite recent winning ways, the team has not had a global superstar in their more than 14 years since launching in the MLS.
The last time a Vancouver team named the Whitecaps had a player with anywhere near the international stature of Müller was when the North American Soccer League’s Whitecaps signed Dutch international Rudi Krol in 1980. Krol only played 14 games for that team.
Bailey said he has seen a slight increase in demand for Whitecaps tickets and clients are willing to pay slightly more for them.
“There is a bit more demand but, you know what? It's not a huge demand. People are excited to see this guy but it is the Whitecaps. You can always get tickets. It's not like a one-time thing with [Inter Miami star Lionel] Messi showing up.”
Other team costs in acquiring Müller included agreeing to pay FC Cincinnati $200,000 this year, $100,000 next year and potentially a second $100,000 next year for the right to negotiate a salary and sign Müller.
Cincinnati had held the star attacking midfielder’s rights.
Merchandise sales will provide another bump to team revenue.
The Whitecaps’ team store in Gastown yesterday confirmed to BIV that it has plenty of jerseys in all sizes.
Schuster said sales for jerseys have been brisk and that the team gets all the revenue for merchandise sales at its own store.
Some professional leagues have complicated structures to split revenue for team merchandise depending on whether sales are more than a certain distance from a home arena, former Vancouver Canucks owner Arthur Griffiths told BIV in 2023.
Schuster said that is not the case in the MLS.
There are independent stores that would get some of the retail price, however, but independent stores that specialize in selling sports team jerseys and other merchandise are becoming few and far between, Vancity Sports Shop owner John Czvelka told BIV.
He closed a longtime store on Vancouver’s Seymour Street in 2022 and moved to Richmond, where he operates what is largely an online business that has a small appointment-only showroom for people to pick-up online orders.
He said he has Whitecaps jerseys that he bought from supplier Adidas but the shirts do not yet have Müller branding.
“They don't come with numbers,” he said of the products that Adidas supplies.
“There's only a couple of guys who are officially licensed to sell soccer jersey numbers, which is in the official fonts, official colours and the official logos. They would not commit to sending the numbers until they absolutely knew for sure [that Müller was joining the Whitecaps and would wear No. 13].”
He expects to get the numbers and letters within days so he can affix them to the jerseys himself, he said.
“My regular customers knew I was doing this and I have sold dozens of orders so far,” he said, adding that before the Müller signing, he rarely had orders for Whitecaps jerseys with specific names and numbers.
Schuster said that the official lettering on Müller jerseys is particularly important because of the umlaut in the player’s name.
Müller is scheduled to first play Aug. 17, when the Whitecaps play the Houston Dynamo FC at BC Place.
The signing comes a couple months after the Whitecaps inked a 2.5-year deal with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP to put the law firm’s logo on the team’s sleeve for what Schuster said was “millions” of dollars.
