NWSL expansion team coming to Bay Area

Image: nwsltothebay (Instagram)

A new professional women’s soccer team will be calling the Bay Area in California (US) home.

‘nbcsports.com’ stated that the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced recently that it awarded expansion rights for a 14^th franchise to an investment group representing the region. The new club will begin play in the league in the 2024 season.

Chicago (US)-based the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women’s soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federation.

‘nbcsports.com’ further stated that the NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman sent out a statement which read, “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. We said at the start of the expansion process in July 2022 that we would be intentional in seeking out strong markets and ownership groups that not only had the structural integrity for our league to thrive, but also demonstrated a genuine commitment to investing in and creating first-rate organizations on and off the pitch. I am confident that this ownership group and market will help us deliver on the league’s continued transformative growth and success and look forward to watching the Bay Area club kick off in 2024.”

The investment company Sixth Street is the new Bay Area’s soccer team majority investor and has partnered with four former U.W. Women’s National Team players in Brandi Chastain (American retired soccer player), Leslie Osborne (retired NWSL team Chicago Red Stars midfielder), Danielle Slaton (American retired professional soccer player), and Aly Wagner (American sports broadcaster and retired soccer midfielder who last played for the Los Angeles Sol of Women’s Professional Soccer and the United States women’s national soccer team), who originally launched the effort to bring an NWSL expansion team to the Bay Area.

The club’s Board will also feature American technology executive Sheryl Sandberg and Rick Welts, former National Basketball Association (NBA) team Golden State Warriors President and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Aly Wagner, one of the founders for the U.S. Women’s National Team, has been working for two years to bring women’s professional soccer to the Bay Area.

Wagner said the new team is poised to ride NWSL’s 11 years of momentum and attendance that is growing year-over-year.

The team plans to build a world-class training facility and eventually a stadium of its own. More information on where the team will play, their name and colors will be unveiled in the months ahead.

San Francisco (US)-based Sixth Street is a global investment firm with $60 billion in assets under management. The firm operates nine investment platforms across its growth investing, adjacencies, direct lending, fundamental public strategies, infrastructure, special situations, agriculture, and par liquid credit businesses.

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• NWSL
• US
• women’s soccer team

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