Thank you, Eighty Six Forever.

Well, it’s be one helluva a ride here at Eighty Six Forever over the past three years. When I joined the team here at the start of the 2013 season (yes, I still remember that match away at Real Salt Lake and Alain Rochat’s controversial departure like it was yesterday) I had no idea that what was intended to be an occasional blog post meant "just for fun" would turn into much, much more.

So, here we are almost exactly three years later. Together we have watched Eighty Six Forever grow and blossom into a thriving community dedicated to the football club we love the most – the Vancouver Whitecaps FC.

We are incredibly proud and humbled by the success and the growth of Eighty Six Forever over the years. We have been fortunate to meet many of you who visit the site in person, and we are even more fortunate to call many of you our friends. We wouldn’t trade the past three years here for anything.

But, just as in the ‘real world’ away from football, times change, and often change comes when you least expect it.

It is with a heavy heart that we put digital ink to digital paper to write this fond farewell. Last week Jorge, Rituro and I were presented with a rare and exciting to opportunity to take our writing and the From the Backline Podcast to a different stage. As they say, we were made an "offer we just couldn’t refuse."

Now it’s time for the "thank you’s". Firstly, to Jon Szekeres for giving us the opportunity to be part of this amazing team, for the encouragement, and for indulging us with some of our more "creative" efforts. Thank-you to all of our colleagues here at Eighty Six Forever who paved the way before us, wrote alongside us, and who will continue to keep this community thriving in the future. And, of course, thanks to all of you who have read, listened, commented, agreed and disagreed with us over the years. It has been your support that has driven us to become better writers and podcasters, and it is you who have helped us carve a spot for ourselves in the Vancouver sports market. We are (hopefully) much better now at what we do than when we arrived, and we believe that has helped build Eighty Six Forever into what it is today.

In closing this isn’t a farewell – it’s more of a "see you around". We are very excited for all that the future holds as we continue forward on roads untraveled and take over the Whitecaps coverage for VanCity Buzz. We hope to see you there but, not to worry – we will still be visiting regularly and we look forward to watching this community grow and being part of it, although in a different role, for many years to come.

Yours in Blue & White Forever,

Mark Dailey

Jorge Mendoza

Rituro