The Vancouver Whitecaps aren't 40 years old.
They aren't. At best they are 14 years old. They might only be four.
Anyone who points this historical accuracy out is accused of being, at best, a killjoy. At worst, they are an anti-Cascadian hater hellbent in destroying all that is good in the world.
Such accusations don't change the fact that the football club that is celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend in no way is 40 years old.
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The name Whitecaps was first attached to a soccer team 40 years ago. That NASL team folded in 1984. In 1985 and 1986 there was no professional soccer team in Vancouver of any name.
Then, in 1987 the Vancouver 86ers began play in the Canadian Soccer League (the original one, not the disgraced Ontario-based league of the same name). That club, created partly with money from Canada's 1986 World Cup team, is inarguably the most successful club team in Canadian history.
The 86ers won nine honours (four playoff championships, five season titles) during the CSL's all-too-short run.
When the CSL went belly up, the 86ers continued in the American pyramid until 1999. At that time the Whitecaps name was purchased back from those who held the rights (further calling into question the claims some in Vancouver make that the gap years and 86ers years can be included in the Whitecaps history because it was really the same people involved).
A team has operated under that name every year since. Technically speaking, that club was folded in 2010 to allow the MLS franchise Vancouver Whitecaps FC to be formed. But, that's a pedantic technicality. The Whitecaps, which is an extension of the 86ers, have pretty much played since 2000.
So, although it does a disservice to the importance of the 86ers name in Canadian soccer history, a charitable interpretation of Whitecaps history can be traced back to 1987.
But, not 1973.
What can be traced back to 1973 is the start of professional soccer in Vancouver. For all but two years since the city has had a pro club. That's the second longest history of pro soccer in Canada and absolutely is worth celebrating.
However, it needs to be celebrated in such a way that acknowledges the challenges and ebbs and flows that the pro game has had in this country. Most of all it needs to be celebrated in such a way that puts the 86ers name front and centre in those celebrations, on equal footing with the Whitecaps name.
By whitewashing the history of the pro game in this country, the Caps are choosing a cheap marketing gimmick over actually celebrating and educating new fans about a history that is no less rich than if the club actually was 40 years old.
Which it isn't.