And now EQZ has put out their own article about the For Denver FC effort: https://equalizersoccer.com/2023/07...eague-expansion-team-interview-jordan-angeli/ Interesting (though totally reasonable I guess) is that they note that, generally speaking, most expansion efforts and the NWSL league office both prefer expansion efforts to be as non-public as possible. I can understand why people on both sides don't want to potentially embarrass themselves with a failed expansion effort, but it's an interesting contrast to the entirety of recent MLS expansion.
Denver has been an interesting situation for me, for years. Colorado has produced a number of world class players, which means it must have one or two absolutely top class youth clubs. Yet somehow Denver has not seemed a soccer city to me -- and my wife is a third generation Denver woman, my older daughter fourth generation.
It's still questionable who is the frontrunner for team #16 to (likely) join Boston in 2026. And then does NWSL look to immediately add teams #17 & #18 by 2028?
Boston Unity Soccer Partners, LLC is the group trying to put an NWSL team back in Boston. They have announced their proposal to upgrade White Stadium in Franklin Park as their home field. https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2023/07/Technical_Proposal_-_Boston_Unity.pdf My gut reaction is the plan's big flaw is having to retain all of the Boston School Districts' sporting uses, including the running track and then do awkward game-day bleacher deployments to cover the track and make it usable as an NWSL venue. 11,000 seats are probably too few. The Architect's proposal is very high quality, but I fear the basic concept is flawed. We went through the whole where-do-we-build-a-new-soccer-specific-stadium in Rochester, NY in the early 2000's for the Rochester Rhinos men's team. It was put in the wrong place for fan access and the site conditions dictated immense design compromises. After 6 seasons playing there, the NWSLs WNY Flash were shut off from the stadium in Rochester and there was no suitable venue to find in Buffalo, NY either. I do not envy the folks in Boston trying to find a place to play.
I do wonder if the Boston franchise may be DOA if they can't secure a stadium to play at. Maybe the next two franchises get delayed or it'll open the door for a current unknown to slide on in.
Boston and ??? #NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman on expansion:Expansion in 2026 will also be two more teams.— womenkickballs (@womenkickballs) September 8, 2023
Berman: Next round of expansion (after Bay FC and Utah in 2024) expected to be two teams in 2026. One of which should be Boston, as we all know, but Berman still won't comment on that specific group ('hopefully soon' remains the general answer). #NWSL— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) September 8, 2023
Boston confirmed: https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/pro...ion-franchise-to-boston-unity-soccer-partners
Boston has been awarded expansion rights for the NWSL’s 15th team!— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) September 19, 2023
Looking at the wiki on the stadium, the stadium will undergo a $30 million revocation. It has no working locker rooms or scoreboard currently. Both were vandalized over the years. 500 seats will be added to increase the seating to 11,000, the league minimum. And apparently the local high school football programs will continue to use the field for football, so gridiron lines. No word on whether the football use will require a switch to Turf.
No, "Unity" is the ownership group, and that's been known for a while, I highly doubt they'd name the team that.
St. Louis City SC owners eye adding National Women's Soccer League team Doesn't say they are actively pursuing a team, but doesn't rule out a future team either. @SiberianThunderT, You seem tuned into both WOSO & STL Sports, anything to this?
I'm only tuned in as much as I can read online, sadly, and I don't have a subscription to the STL Biz Journal, so I can't read the original article and don't know if this is a case of they voiced interest just because they were asked or a case of them actually planning on submitting for team 16. Considering the sub-headline to the KSDK article is "on our radar", it doesn't sound very proactive to me. They gave NWSL some lip service back when they were awarded the MLS team but at the time they said they wanted to get City successfully off the ground before turning to NWSL.
I don't have a biz journal sub either. Didn't know if the question was just a general ask, or more to address a rumor i hadn't heard. I'm with you on the "on our radar" thing. As I stated above, it would indicate to me anyway, nothing is in the works, but potentially in the future.
In other expansion news... Rumor mill is suggesting that former Canadian NTer Carmelina Moscato is being lined up as the inaugural coach for Bay FC The Utah Royals are already priming their fans for the upcoming season by giving their own rundown of free agency ahead of the expansion draft
And that rumor is now dead. Bay FC announce Albertin Montoya as their inaugural head coach. Montoya led FC Gold Pride through its two WPS seasons way back in the day, and has mostly been coaching youth ever since (including a short stint with the US u17 WNT). However, he served as interim for the Spirit for about a month last year, and apparently that got him interested in coaching at the pro level again. Make of that what you will...
FYI, the WNBA will finally announce(mid-October) the Bay Area as an expansion team likely to start play in 2025. The WNBA hasn't expanded since 2008. This will bring the WNBA up to 13 teams.
EQZ with another extensive journalist look at what's going on behind the scenes in NWSL, this time looking at the Boston expansion: https://equalizersoccer.com/2023/10...white-stadium-private-public-renovation-plan/ I am *very* concerned about the following info: As urbanist as I am, and I love seeing cities design spaces that aren't car-dependent, having the stadium be fully car-averse seems like a great way to keep attendance down, especially when the idea is to rely on shuttles because it's not easy to walk/metro to either.
Oh yeah, I don't mind having those as options; options are great. The Spirit even did that some when we were playing out at the MD Soccerplex. But having that as being the primary means to attend feels very tenuous to me.