New NWSL team reveals Bay FC name, logo, branding

The Bay Area's National Women's Soccer League team finally has a name: Bay FC.

The club revealed its name nearly two full months after announcing it would become the NWSL's 14th team and with only nine months until its first match next year.

Bay FC co-chair Aly Wagner said the process to choose the name was meant to represent "the whole Bay Area" and could also feel iconic on its debut — but without a need for a nickname.

"One of the things we wanted to get across in our brand was the idea of timelessness, of being classic, of permanence — it's something that could have been around for a really long time," Wagner said on Thursday. "We’ve been around a lot of mascots and silly names that have been associated with our craft. That is not the path that we wanted to go down.

"We wanted to bring tradition to a disruptive vision."

Wagner headlines the ownership group along with fellow former U.S. women's national team stars Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osbourne and Danielle Slaton, as well as global investment firm Sixth Street. Alan Waxman, the co-founder and CEO of Sixth Street, is listed as the team's principal owner.

Along with the name comes a logo and brand identity, which San Francisco-based ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P) helped to create. The logo stylized the letter B in a gothic font, with the vertical line of the letter B designed to resemble a tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.

B Loud! 📣📣📣#BayFC will debut in the @nwsl 2024 season! pic.twitter.com/ZgLF0Spoky

— Bay Football Club (@wearebayfc) June 1, 2023

The team will also seemingly use the Golden Gate's distinctive hue as one of its three signature colors alongside fog gray and dark navy blue. The club is calling its color "warm poppy red", though, which differs from the "international orange" color of the bridge, as designated by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District.

The club didn't specify which of the six logos it unveiled on Thursday was its primary insignia, with a mixture of its three colors used as the logo or background. The hope is that the "B" for Bay FC becomes an iconic identifier in the region and around the globe, both on merchandise and even in street art.

"We really started with the idea of bridges really defining the Bay as beautiful pillars of strength that will connect us all," Osbourne said while she and her fellow owners modeled some merchandise.

Many pieces of merchandise are already available on the team's website — bayfc.com — including T-shirts, sweatshirts, a hat and youth apparel. It's a noticeable difference from other women's sports, where there has been a long struggle to create products fans want to purchase.

"We as women have struggled to have the right merchandise in the sport landscape," Wagner said, adding that a wider volume of products will continue to be added and available for purchase over time.

More can be seen and purchased when Bay FC hosts its first public event this Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. at the Presidio's Main Parade Lawn in San Francisco, near the Golden Gate Bridge itself. The event will have a live concert, food trucks, giveaways and a first look at new team merchandise.

In addition to the four former USWNT stars, former Facebook CEO and FC investor Sheryl Sandberg is expected to attend the Saturday event and address the crowd, as will elected officials and local athletes.

The team still hasn't finalized where it will play, though its likely home is PayPal Park in San Jose, about 50 miles south of the landmark depicted on Bay FC's logo.

Waxman said that the club hopes to announce where it will be training this month, though he strongly suggested that Santa Clara University will be the host site, where all four ex-USWNT owners played and where Chastain's husband, Jerry Smith, is the longtime women's soccer coach.

In the long term, Waxman said that the club is still looking for anyone with 30 acres to build its own world-class training facility, saying that any person who can identify the acreage and help the Bay FC acquire it will have "free season tickets for life." He also added, "It is our aspiration to have our stadium."

NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman was also on the call and noted that past teams have been fully launched in 90-120 days, so she isn't worried about the short build-up to a new season.

"Building a team is a full-time job, it's a full-time focus," Berman said. "It's not just hiring the right people, but it's making sure that you’re setting up an environment where people can bring their full selves to the table and their best ideas.

"They have the runway to do it, they have the resources to do it, and they have the right priorities. I’m very confident that they’re focused on the right thing."

The next step for Bay FC, in Berman's eyes, is hiring people, which Waxman said will start with a new CEO officially joining the organization on June 12, though who it is remains unnamed for now.

Beyond Saturday's event, fans can already go on the new website and place a season ticket deposit option — $25 for a general ticket, $100 for a premium ticket and $1,000 for a suite deposit.

Fans may not know where those matches will be played yet. But they can start rocking the gear for their new team and get ready for 2024.

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