Bay Area

New Women’s Pro Soccer Team Coming to Bay Area

Former U.S. Women’s National Team players Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner announced Tuesday that the National Women’s Soccer League has awarded expansion rights to their group. The team, which has not yet announced a name or home stadium, will start playing in the league in 2024.

Published

3 years ago

April 28, 2023

Oakland Post

Leslie Osborne had 62 caps for the USWNT and played in the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China where the U.S. took third place in the tournament. Osborne played professionally for nine seasons and was team captain on all of her professional teams in the WPS and NWSL. (Allison+Partners via Bay City News)

By Bay City News

A new professional women’s soccer team is coming to the Bay Area.

The four soccer stars, who all have Bay Area ties including each hailing from Santa Clara University, spoke Tuesday about their efforts to bring a pro women’s team to the region starting nearly three years ago following the announcement of another NWSL expansion team, Angel City Football Club in Los Angeles.

“LA is doing this, why aren’t we doing it?” Osborne said the women were asking themselves as the group got to work to bring a team to the Bay Area.

The new team’s majority investor is Sixth Street, an investment firm with stakes in European soccer clubs like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona as well as the pro basketball team the San Antonio Spurs.

Chastain, who scored an iconic game-winning goal in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final for the U.S. over China, said “it is a different time” now in women’s sports compared to her playing days, citing the high ratings and interest for the recent NCAA women’s college basketball championship. She said the Bay Area is the perfect place to help the sport grow even more.

“We here in the Bay Area are innovators, we’re thinkers, we’re creators,” Chastain said. “The Bay is where champions come to play, that is our call to action.”

Other members of the team’s board include Sheryl Sandberg, tech executive and founder of LeanIn.org, Rick Welts, who most recently served as president of the Golden State Warriors, and Staci Slaughter, former executive vice president for the San Francisco Giants.

More details about the team can be found on its website at https://nwsltothebay.com/.

Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.