Victoria United is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. With lineage to clubs founded in 1904, the team plays in the Pacific Coast Soccer League, a provincial amateur league featuring teams from British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. From the 1930s through 1970s, Victoria United FC played in the old Pacific Coast League, notably winning five league championships and one playoff tile. In 1967, they won the Pacific Coast International Championship for the J.F. Kennedy Trophy. From 1994 through 2012 Victoria played its home matches at Royal Athletic Park. Because of conflicts with the newly introduced semi-professional baseball team at Royal Athletic Park, United played the 2013 and 2014 seasons at Braefoot Park in Saanich. The team's colours are blue and white. On October 1, 2014, the team announced that it would be dissolved. It was reconstituted in 2020 and is scheduled to re-join the PCSL for the 2020 season.
History
The team was formed in 1904 as a merger of two Victoria teams, Victoria Association Football Club, and Victoria Capitals. Until its dissolution, Victoria United was one of the oldest surviving sports clubs in North America. They were also one of the more successful clubs in the PCSL, having been champions on five occasions in the modern era. The formation of the USL Premier Development League's Victoria Highlanders starting in the 2009 season reduced Victoria United's success on and off the field. Former United stars such as Tyler and Jordan Hughes joined the Highlanders, the fanbase gravitated to the higher-level PDL side, and the once-formidable United fell in the standings, even finishing behind the Highlanders reserve team in 2010. Beginning in 2011 the Highlanders shared United's ground at Royal Athletic Park, while United also had to split time with baseball's Victoria Seals and HarbourCats. The shortage of stadium time and added competition eventually compelled United to move to smaller Braefoot Park in 2013, and was noted as a reason for the team folding at the end of the 2014 season.
The Pacific Coast Soccer League champion is the premier team with the most points at the end of the season. The top four men's premier teams or the Host team and the top three compete in a single game knockout tournament to decide the playoff champion. The top Canadian team in the Pacific Coast Soccer League is also eligible to compete in a tournament against the top amateur teams from Washington State and Oregon State. This competition includes the league champion as a host team and is a single game knockout tournament. The Victoria Highlanders and Victoria United maintain a friendly relationship and play a charity match each preseason around July 1.
