New San Francisco NWSL team will be called Bay FC
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Sports Writer
The new National Women’s Soccer League team in the San Francisco Bay Area will be called Bay Football Club, or Bay FC for short.
The team’s name, logo and colors — navy, poppy red and fog gray — were unveiled Thursday. Bay FC is set to join the NWSL as the league’s 14th team in 2024.
The team expects to announce where it will train temporarily in the coming months, with plans to build a permanent practice facility in the future.
“One of the things that we contemplated throughout this whole process was we wanted to be for the whole big area — we didn’t want to be just for the North Bay, we didn’t want to be just for the East Bay or the South Bay,” said Aly Wagner, co-chair of Bay FC. “There are incredible, incredible places in the Bay Area that make this one of the most special places in the world.”
Wagner is a founding partner of the team along with fellow former U.S. team players Brandi Chastain, Danielle Slaton and Leslie Osborne.
Bay FC’s logo incorporates a stylized depiction of a bridge with the letter B.
San Francisco-based investment firm Sixth Street is Bay FC’s majority backer with an investment of $125 million. The firm has also invested in soccer clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.
Sixth Street CEO Alan Waxman will serve on the NWSL’s board of governors. Others on the franchise’s board include Sheryl Sandberg, a former Facebook executive, Rick Welts, former Golden State Warriors president, and Staci Slaughter, former vice president for communications for the San Francisco Giants.
The NWSL is in the midst of it 11th season with 12 teams. Angel City in Los Angeles and the San Diego Wave joined the league last year. Last month, the league announced the return of the Utah Royals, who will also start play in 2024.
The league is expected to add a 15th team in the Boston area in the future.
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