NWSL Awards Bay Area Expansion Team for 2024 Season

A new professional women’s soccer team has announced they will be joining the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the Bay Area for the 2024 season.

The league announced on Tuesday that the expansion rights for the 14th franchise have been awarded to an investment group representing the region.

The ownership group, which includes Sixth Street as the majority investor, has partnered with four former U.S. Women’s National Team players, who are Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton, and Aly Wagner, who have been working for two years to bring women’s professional soccer to the Bay Area.

The NWSL’s commissioner, Jessica Berman, stated that the number of bids and increase in the league’s expansion fees is indicative of the demand for women’s soccer in the professional sports landscape and the growth trajectory of the 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,” said Berman.

The club’s board will also feature Sheryl Sandberg and Rick Welts, former Warriors president and COO.

The new team plans to build a world-class training facility and eventually a stadium of its own and more information on the team’s name, colors, and where they will play will be revealed in the coming months.

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

The announcement comes after the NWSL kicked off its season with the Portland Thorns last month.