Women’s Sports Coming to the Bay Area!

Get excited everyone! The Bay Area is getting ready to welcome not one, but two women’s sports teams. In the past year, the Bay Area has been awarded one expansion team from both the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). 

Bay FC is the NSWL’s 14th expansion team and will represent the Bay Area. They will compete in the NWSL, the highest tier of women’s soccer in America. With their inaugural season just around the corner, Bay FC is set to make a significant impact on the women’s sports scene in the Bay Area. 

Bay FC will play their first game at their current home stadium, San Jose’s PayPal Park, which is also the home of the men’s Major Soccer League (MLS) team, the San Jose Earthquakes. Though PayPal Park will be their home for the 2024 season, plans for a separate stadium as their future home in San Francisco have been proposed but not finalized. 

The club was co-founded by United States Women’s National Soccer Team legends Aly Wagner, Brandi Chastain, Danielle Slaton, and Leslie Osborne. The soccer legends have expressed their commitment to building a team that is player-led, fan-focused, and positively impacts the community by promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion through the game of soccer. The founders have brought in Albertin Montoya to lead the team as their head coach. Montoya has experience coaching the Washington Spirit and formerly played on the Earthquakes. 

The second team coming to the Bay Area, as they were awarded to the Golden State Warriors as the 13th team in the WNBA will play their first game at the beginning of the 2025 WNBA season. They are the first WNBA expansion team in 15 years. 

Although the team lacks an official name or mascot, they are likely to be called “Golden State,” according to ESPN. Their home stadium will be Chase Center, the home of the Warriors, but they are likely to practice in Oakland. 

The team will be owned and operated by the same people behind the Warriors: Co-Executive Chairman and CEO Joe Lacob and Co-Executive Chairman Peter Guber. Both of these teams mark a huge step for women’s sports in the Bay Area. As their inaugural seasons approach, the Bay Area waits eagerly to see what these teams can bring to their leagues.