For the four former USWNT stars still based in the Bay Area, the motivation to launch their own NWSL team, now known as Bay FC, was quite simple—if Angel City FC could do it, there’s no reason why they couldn’t.
“It started with a phone call three years ago,” Leslie Osborne recalled. The former midfielder who had played on the Bay Area’s last pro women’s team, FC Gold Pride, is credited by her co-founders—Aly Wagner, Danielle Slayton and Brandi Chastain (all four are products of Santa Clara University)—with coming up with the idea first.
She watched as a mix of Hollywood celebrities, venture capitalists, and other USWNT greats combined to form one of the hottest new brands in American soccer in Los Angeles. “The four of us have remained close through the years and we were all on the same page,” Osborne said. “We have to do this here.”
Two more years of phone calls after that earned them an audience with Sixth Street Partners, which has put down a $125 million stake, believed to be the largest institutional investment in U.S. women’s soccer to date.
Alan Waxman, CEO of Sixth Street, said at Bay FC’s launch party at the Presidio that the team’s proximity to his company’s headquarters in San Francisco made the partnership a seamless fit.
“If you want to do something bold and game-changing, you do it from here [in the Bay Area],” he said. “We’re going to make Bay FC the first globally recognized women’s club.”
He also announced that Golden State Warriors forward Andre Igoudala would be joining the investment group, adding to Bay FC’s coalition of celebrity investors, which includes former Meta executive Sheryl Sandberg.
“And we’re going to do it by committing to do everything at a world-class level,” Waxman said on stage. Sixth Street also has minority stakes in global powerhouses Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
“Those clubs know that the Bay Area is a soccer factory,” he bragged. And although he and Wagner have visited both Madrid and Barcelona in recent months, he declined to share what was discussed.
Plenty of gas and hype permeated the air as thousands came to the main post lawns to get their hands on the first batch of Bay FC gear. (For his part, Iggy took to the stage and said, “Bay FC has the best swag.”) But previous attempts at top-flight women’s soccer have fizzled out before.
Chastain, herself, starred for the San Jose CyberRays in the defunct WUSA from 2001-2003, while the aforementioned FC Gold Pride only lasted two seasons in the also defunct WPS, folding in 2010.
What makes this time for Bay FC and the NWSL any different?
“The gatekeepers or barriers to consume our product are in the rear-view mirror,” said Wagner, who will co-chair the club’s board with Waxman and serve as alternate governor to the NWSL board of governors.
“We have streaming now [which makes the games accessible] and social media where fans can connect straight to our athletes,” she told Soccer Bay Area—all things her generation didn’t get to enjoy. “Sure, this could have been done two years ago, but we’re looking forward to riding the momentum of this [upcoming] World Cup.”
Also in attendance at Bay FC’s launch party were executives from their muse, Angel City FC.
Julie Uhrman, president of the Los Angeles based club, told Soccer Bay Area in an exclusive interview that she was impressed with the festivities.
“It just goes to show that women’s sports is valued and thriving,” Uhrman said. “My advice to their group would be to build with intentionality and purpose. Keep the community at the core of everything you do. And deliver for your players and they will, in turn, deliver for you.”
Wagner added that Uhrman’s front office has been a valuable resource in advising the Bay FC group along their NWSL expansion journey; although she quipped, “they will rue not asking us [three years ago] to join their investment group.”
Slayton, who has over 40 caps for the USWNT and is recognizable to locals for her work as a television analyst, called Saturday’s launch party explicitly a “call to action.”
“The reality is, if this is going to work, we’re going to need the entire Bay Area to show up for us,” she said. “We need you to buy tickets, follow our social media, and flaunt our gear. That’s just the first step in a long line of things we need to build something lasting.”
Notice: the entire Bay Area. Not just San Francisco; or San Jose or the East Bay. The elephant in the room remains where Bay FC games will actually be played, and the club’s official stance is that they are still keeping all of their options open.
While politicians from all three of the Bay’s major cities jockeyed for their city to host NWSL games on stage, the unspoken favorite is PayPal park in San Jose. It is the newest soccer-specific facility in the area, and has already hosted the USWNT and other professional teams several times.
Even though a promotional video from Bay FC shows a snapshot of Kezar Stadium in SF, the city’s soccer infrastructure is notoriously old and it would be generous to say that available land to develop anything new is incredibly scarce.
Oakland on the other hand, has already opened its arms to the USL’s Oakland Roots/Soul organization, in light of the impending A’s departure.
After an awkward impasse over the Oakland Coliseum site, the Roots announced earlier this month that they had reached a cooperation agreement with the African American Sports & Entertainment Group (AASEG), current exclusive rights holders to the land, to build their own modular stadium on the property.
Sources at the Roots front office have said previously that they do want to host events outside of their teams’ games at their new stadium, in order to grow club revenue, but never mentioned the NWSL by name.
Bay FC is slated to join the NWSL in 2024.
About the Author: Kevin V. Nguyen has covered soccer for The Guardian, The Sacramento Bee, and The San Francisco Standard. Follow him on Twitter @KevinNguyen_89.
