Tag: NWSL expansion

NWSL confirms Boston expansion team for 2026 season

The league will return to Boston eight years after the Breakers folded

The NWSL is coming back to Boston.

The league announced on Tuesday that the city has been awarded an expansion franchise that will begin play in the 2026 season.

The new franchise will arrive eight years after Boston lost its previous team, the Boston Breakers, who folded in 2018 after being part of the league since its inception in 2013.

The club will be owned by Boston Unity Soccer Partners, an all-female ownership group with ties to Boston.

“I’m excited to expand the NWSL’s footprint and continue its transformative growth in our return to Boston, one of the world’s most iconic sports cities,” said NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman in a statement.

“We are very proud to welcome Boston Unity Soccer Partners to our ownership group. They bring an impressive roster of business leaders committed to continuing Boston’s legacy of sports excellence and delivering a successful team to a very passionate fanbase. We are thrilled for their entry to the league in the 2026 season and add a new chapter to the storied history of Boston sports.”

The team will play its home games at White Stadium in Boston’s Franklin Park, a facility built in the 1940s that is set to undergo a $30 million renovation.

“I look forward to the revitalization of White Stadium and the partnership of this team and league to create new opportunities in Franklin Park and for our student-athletes citywide,” said Boston mayor Michelle Wu.

The Boston franchise will be the league’s 15th team, with Bay FC and the Utah Royals set to join next year as the 13th and 14th teams in the league. Berman has previously said the NWSL plans to add two teams for the 2026 season, which puts one more spot up for grabs after Boston’s addition.

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The Bay Area NWSL expansion team will be called Bay FC

The club’s logo is defined by a “B” that draws inspiration from the Golden Gate Bridge

The San Francisco Bay Area NWSL expansion team has announced it will be known as Bay FC.

The club will enter the NWSL in 2024 as the league’s 14th team, joining the Utah Royals as expansion teams who will begin play next year.

Longtime U.S. women’s national team players Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton, and Aly Wagner were the driving force behind securing a Bay Area franchise, and all four will sit on the club’s board.

“Bay FC will be a uniting force, building a culture of belonging and shared pride,” Wagner said in a press release. “We will be a beacon of hope and connection, welcoming and embracing people of all backgrounds. While community is our foundation, our love of football is our reason for being. Bay FC will have the fire to be the best, and we will show up every day with intensity, competitiveness, passion and a drive to win.”

The club’s logo is defined by a “B” that draws inspiration from the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, and its color palette contains navy blue, red and gray — a combination the club says is inspired by the area’s natural beauty.

“Bridges define the Bay Area and are symbols of strength that connect us all. Bay FC will unite the region’s tapestry of different cultures, languages and ideas with shared pride and a sense of belonging,” Slaton said.

The NWSL awarded the Bay Area an expansion team in April. Global investment firm Sixth Street will be the club’s majority owners, with a reported $53 million franchise fee setting a new NWSL record.

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Utah Royals name ex-USWNT star Amy Rodriguez head coach

Rodriguez served as captain of the previous iteration of the Royals during a three-year stint

The Utah Royals have named former U.S. national team star Amy Rodriguez head coach ahead of the club’s 2024 expansion season.

Rodriguez served as captain of the previous iteration of the Royals, playing three seasons with the club between 2018 and 2020. That franchise would relocate to Kansas City in 2021, where it would eventually become the Current.

Earlier this year, the NWSL confirmed Utah would be awarded an expansion team for the 2024 season, which will once again use the Royals name and colors.

“Returning to Utah is a dream I never knew I had and it is with the utmost humility that I step into this role as your club’s head coach,” Rodriguez said in a club statement.

“My time with the Royals is among the greatest years of my professional career. The Utah community fully embraced my family and made this state feel like home for not just myself, but my husband and kids as well. We were devastated to leave and I left feeling like there was still unfinished business on the table. I cannot put into words just how excited I am to get to work and bring Royalty back to this community.”

Rodriguez retired as a player following the 2021 NWSL season and has been serving as an assistant coach for her alma mater, the University of Southern California, since then.

During a storied playing career, Rodriguez earned 132 caps for the USWNT, winning Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and the World Cup in 2015.

Utah will be one of two expansion teams joining the NWSL next season, with the league awarding a new team to a Bay Area group earlier this month.

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NWSL awards expansion team to Bay Area for 2024 season

The league’s 14th team will join next year along with the Utah Royals

The NWSL has awarded an expansion team to a group representing the Bay Area, which will begin play in 2024.

Following last month’s announcement that the Utah Royals will begin play in 2024 as the league’s 13th team, the Bay Area club will now be the league’s 14th franchise.

Multiple reports stated the franchise fee was $53 million, a record for the NWSL, which is part of an overall $125 million investment that, per a league release, includes “building a state-of-the art training venue in a to-be-announced location.”

“The number of bids and the increase in the league’s expansion fees are indicative of both the demand that exists for women’s soccer in the professional sports landscape and the validated growth trajectory of our league,” said NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman.

With Boston also expected to be awarded a franchise in the near future, the league said that it “remains engaged in the expansion process with an eye towards adding teams #15 and #16.”

The new Bay Area club’s majority investor is Sixth Street, a leading global investment firm, but the driving force behind the new franchise is four longtime U.S. women’s national team players: Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton, and Aly Wagner.

The “Founding Football Four,” as the press release called them, originally launched the effort to bring a NWSL team to the Bay Area, and will be on the club’s board.

“This is something we’ve been working on for almost three years, and to reach this point and officially be accepted into the NWSL is both a dream come true and a motivator, because now it’s time to start building,” said Slaton.

Also on the club’s board will be Sheryl Sandberg, a former top executive at Meta, who along with her husband Tom Bernthal “will partner with the club to create leadership programs that empower women and girls.”

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NWSL confirms return of Utah Royals FC as 2024 expansion team

Welcome back, Royals

Less than three years after shuttering the Utah Royals, NWSL is bringing them back.

The league said in a press release Saturday night that Utah would be the home of a new team that will begin play in 2024, confirming numerous reports to emerge in 2023.

“When we acquired Real Salt Lake last year, we said it was a matter of when, not if, the NWSL would return to Utah,” said club co-owner David Blitzer. “This has always been an integral part of our mission. With today’s announcement, we are thrilled to fulfill the promise we made to our incredible fan base.”

NWSL confirmed that the Utah Royals FC name would be used once again, and that the team would play at America First Credit Union Stadium, as they did during their first run from 2018-20.

The new club’s president will be Michelle Hyncik, who has served as Real Salt Lake’s general counsel for the past three years. Before that, she worked as senior legal counsel for MLS.

“As someone who credits my entire livelihood to my home on the pitch, I will prioritize empowering our Utah Royals players, and the young girls and boys who look up to them, through providing state of the art facilities, resources, staff, engagement, and opportunities to achieve their full potential,” said Hyncik, referencing her past as a soccer player at Harvard. “I could not be prouder to be part of this community and the Utah Soccer family as we bring world-class women’s soccer to Utah in 2024.”

“We are delighted to welcome Utah Royals FC and its dedicated fan base back into the league,” NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman in the league’s announcement. “The return of the women’s game to Utah, where soccer roots run deep, is a victory for players and fans alike. As the Royals begin this new chapter under the new ownership and leadership, I am confident the club will build a player-first organization equipped with the tools to thrive on and off the pitch.”

Royals redux

Utah’s first foray into NWSL began promisingly, with stars like Christen Press and Becky Sauerbrunn anchoring a team that had big ambitions. However, persistent rumors of dubious conduct in the front office, including from owner Dell Loy Hansen, exploded into public view in late August 2020.

It was a one-two punch: Hansen first gave public statements criticizing MLS players for refusing to play as a protest after the shooting of Jacob Blake, going as far as to say he might refuse to fund the team further. Later that same day, The Athletic detailed extensive allegations of racist statements and actions from Hansen.

Within days, Hansen would announce that he intended to sell the Royals, Real Salt Lake, and the MLS’s side’s USL satellite, the Real Monarchs. That move ended with NWSL selling the Royals to the Long family in Kansas City, who started the Kansas City Current in 2021. Ironically, it was the organization’s second go-around in that city, as Utah had initially been FC Kansas City from 2013-2017 only for ownership troubles to force their move to the Wasatch front.

The new version of the Royals will be NWSL’s 13th side. Further expansion is, per reports in the Wall Street Journal, slated for the San Francisco Bay area and Boston, though those teams’ start dates are not settled. Boston is believed to be on course to enter the league in 2026, but NWSL has not publicly confirmed their bid or the Bay area group.

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