I'll stab PV or Robb if they ever say they care about every competition and want to win everything.
About a month ago I heard Vermes on 810 and without out and out saying it he basically stated that before the competition started the organization decided to punt on it. There were a couple of decisions that CONCACAF made that made the competition difficult on MLS teams, he didn't say what that was. He also said that CONCACAF allowed Vancouver to change the schedule that was initially put together ava CONCACAF allowed this change to bee made despite objections from SKC.
Long story short, I think they have proven in the past that they take CCL seriously but this season CONCACAF did some things to make the club essentially say, no thanks.