Support WBUR
Commentary
Boston's new pro-women's soccer team needs a do-over
All sports have ways to indicate errors in play: in hockey, players are put in the penalty box; in basketball they accumulate fouls; in soccer, players are warned with a foul, then a yellow card or if extra egregious, a red card. This week, the brand launch of Boston’s newest professional team — an expansion team of the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) — was so bad that it warrants at least a yellow card.
But that card can be forgiven if the owners listen to the community, acknowledge their errors, apologize and try again. I hope they do. All Boston fans deserve better.
If you aren’t a rabid follower of women’s professional soccer (and women’s sports generally), as I am, some background: On Tuesday October 15, the Boston Unity Soccer Partners announced that their new team would be called “BOS Nation FC.”
They launched the new brand in a video that focused on balls.
“Old balls, new balls, steel balls, cold balls” read the text, a perverse Dr. Seuss rhyme superimposed over images of the Red Sox, Revolution, Celtics and Bruins, respectively. “Even goat balls,” a female voice announces as a baffled Tom Brady looked on. “Yeah, Boston loves its balls. But maybe there are too many balls in this town,” the narrator proclaims, before finally turning to the Boston women’s soccer team halfway through the launch video.
It was bad. Very, very bad. This is the (now) archived video.
The launch was universally panned by fans, journalists, current and former NWSL players. The NWSL Boston Independent Supporters Group issued a statement sharing their enthusiasm for a new team and their disappointment in “choice of name and advertising campaign,” with their hopes that the team will listen and “reconsider their branding choices moving forward.”
The original launch video has since been edited to neuter the ball jokes, but the damage is done. On a day that was meant to celebrate a new women’s professional soccer team, the ownership decided to focus on Boston’s professional men’s teams, and did so in the most crass way possible. I’m happy to be called a prude about this, but in a moment to be celebrating women’s pro sports, making jokes about genitalia is tasteless at best and transphobic at worst. It also suggested that the team’s all-female ownership group doesn't trust Boston sports fans to cheer for pro women’s teams.
It gets worse. Originally, a website www.toomanyballs.com redirected fans to the team website, though that site has been discontinued after only a day of negative feedback. A t-shirt emblazoned with “TOO MANY BALLS,” available on the team website, has been pulled too.
Sports is never only about the competition. It’s always a reflection of larger social and political issues. Across the U.S. right now, Donald Trump and Republican candidates for office have weaponized trans inclusion, particularly in girls and women’s sports, as a dog whistle for the fall from supposed “American values.” To even play with these themes is dangerous.
By Wednesday afternoon, the team had issued something of an apology, but a whole lot of repair work remains.
Trust your fans to cheer on excellence, regardless of gender.
I moonlight as a sports reporter for Boston Women’s Sports. What I learned covering PWHL Boston (and the Boston Pride before them) upended my presumptions about the profile of the fan base: The fans were hockey fans, and a large number were also Bruins fans. Sure, many were there to support women’s sports, but a bunch just loved good hockey. Sports fans love a good game. That’s my first plea to the Boston’s new NWSL team’s owners: Trust your fans to cheer on excellence, regardless of gender.
What is so profoundly disappointing is the failure by team owners to see the assets of women athletes and fans already present in Boston.
Bos Nation FC missed all the championship women’s pro teams that came before them. Boston’s “Title Town” status has always included women, even when we’ve failed to hang the banners of women’s teams. The Boston Blades won championships in 2013 and 2015; the Boston Pride won in 2016, 2021 and 2022; the Boston Renegades won championships for six years straight, from 2018 to 2023. PWHL Boston, now known as the Boston Fleet and the Boston Renegades (the women’s pro football team) made it to their respective national championship finals in 2024. Meanwhile, Beantown Rugby Football Club has won six national titles and is in the process of moving to a professional structure.
At the launch event on Tuesday night — which I attended — ownership failed to acknowledge the Boston Renegades until the very end of the event. And the main speaker was Charlie Davies, a former member of the N.E. Revolution and the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team. Who didn’t address the crowd, you ask? Lauren Cheney Holiday and Kristine Lilly, local residents and key members of the World Cup champion and gold-medal winning Olympic U.S. Women’s National Team. You know you’re off when you’ve lost the support of local soccer legend Sam Mewis.
In “Mean Girls,” the 2004 movie written by Tina Fey, one character scolds the other, saying “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen.” I’m thrilled for an all-women’s ownership group of a women’s pro-team, but I’ll be damned if we’re going to make BOS Nation FC happen by erasing the legacy of other pro women’s teams. BOS Nation, pronounced “boss nation,” we were told at the event, is an anagram for “Bostonian,” which is a ridiculous reason to choose a team name. You can’t chant it. It sounds like Logan airport sponsors it. For the love of all that is holy, stop trying to make Girl BOS Nation happen.
The good news is that there is time before the team begins play in 2026. So there is time to fix this — and precedent for doing so. Few people remember that the original name for another NWSL team, Racing Louisville FC, was Proof Louisville FC when announced in November 2019. By April 2020, the ownership was reconsidering to “engage all of our stakeholders.” And in July 2020, the team launched Racing Louisville FC to universal acclaim.
There’s a lot going for the new Boston team. People want to support this club. The colors are fine. The food at the launch event was as diverse as Boston and hopefully an indicator of the many potential vendors at the rehabbed White Stadium. The ownership needs to fix what they’ve broken, rebuild trust, and listen to a fan base that loves women’s sports already — not just the potential men’s sports fans they’re trying to cultivate. And for the record: I’d suggest Bostonia FC, but almost anything other than BOS Nation would fine.
We’re willing to take a yellow card and try again.
