Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The club was founded on March 18, 2009, and began play in 2011 as the 17th team to enter Major League Soccer. They are a phoenix club and the third team to use the "Whitecaps" name, which originated in 1974 as a member of the North American Soccer League and was revived in 2001 for a second-division team that last played in the 2010 USSF Division 2. The club has been owned and managed by the same group since they were a second-division franchise.