The newest NWSL club announced its official name, badge and branding in a media conference Thursday. Here’s what you need to know:

• Bay Football Club will be the name of the team based in Northern California.
• The NWSL’s 14th club will join the league in 2024. Former players Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner will serve on the board.
• Investment firm Sixth Street is the club’s majority investor, agreeing to invest $125 million with $53 million of that covering the NWSL’s expansion fee.
• Alan Waxman, CEO of Sixth Street, told members of the media Thursday the announcement of a training facility will happen in the upcoming months, followed by a stadium. A yet-to-be-named CEO will start June 12.

It’s official. The 14th expansion club in the @nwsl will be known as Bay Football Club! ⚽️🩶@WeAreBayFC #BayFC pic.twitter.com/HkOgLNsdvl

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

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Initial thoughts on name, branding

There are still a lot of footballing decisions and moves that the newest NWSL expansion club has to make, but Thursday’s launch of its new name, crest and brand was a promising start for its identity. Bay Football Club opted for simplicity when it came to their name, but the crest includes some thoughtful homages to their market by bringing the bridge elements into the crest. The website shows how they’re going to be able to leverage the design, from hype videos to the first round of merch. For me, there’s actually more of an old-school baseball feel in the design, but that’s not a bad thing in my book. Next up: walking the talk on building their team. — Linehan

What they’re saying

“We will push the envelope and we want to differentiate what we are doing here, not just for our local fans, but for everybody,” Chastain said. “We will prove to you that women’s sports brands can be a global force. We have no doubt about that.”

Wagner said the club took a simple approach to branding.

“We wanted to have a nod to tradition,” Wagner said. “I think one of the beauties of the game, the beauties of football, is that it has the ability to inspire and elicit passion that spans generations. And one of the things that we wanted to get across in our brand was this idea of timelessness, of being classic, of permanence, something that could have been around for a really long time. But potentially more important, that it stood for stability and empowerment in the future… I think we’ve been in women’s football for a very long time, as you know, but 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.”

Required reading

(Photo courtesy of Bay FC)