BOS Nation FC is out: Boston NWSL team to reveal new name in ‘next few weeks’
The team announced the news at a watch party for the start of the 2025 NWSL regular season and said the new name will be announced in the “next few weeks,” with their crest coming this summer.
The Boston team launched the BOS Nation FC name and colors last October to an overwhelmingly negative reaction — though the reaction was in large part due to the team’s campaign centered around the concept of “Too Many Balls.” The campaign video, centered on the history of championship-winning professional men’s sports teams from the region, featured athletes like Tom Brady and also featured the phrase “goat balls” in an announcement for a women’s sports team.
Boston eventually pulled the video and acknowledged it had “missed the mark.”
From us to you. pic.twitter.com/ASHFHltb5n
— BOS Nation FC (@NWSLBoston) October 16, 2024
With the campaign retracted, the focus turned to the name. BOS Nation was an anagram of Bostonian, but the rearrangement was not readily apparent without the club’s explanation. Five months after launch, the name’s tenure has come to an end.
“The club extends our heartfelt thanks to our supporters, whose passionate voices we deeply value — not just for their unwavering support but also for their honest and critical feedback,” Jennifer Epstein, Boston’s controlling owner, said in the team’s official release. “We could not have completed this process without your input. We aim to build a lasting legacy that makes all our fans feel welcome, connected, and proud to wear our colors and cheer our name for generations to come.”
Boston is not the first NWSL club to rebrand following an expansion launch. Racing Louisville FC first launched as Proof, a nod to the city’s bourbon industry. Racing also took five months to indicate new branding would be on the way, and by July, the new name and crest were released — led by established designer Matt Wolff. Boston will take a slightly different approach by announcing the name in a few weeks and the full crest in the summer.
The 15th NWSL team has plenty of other ongoing work to do, but the main focus for the club is the ongoing renovations of White Stadium. The work is scheduled to be completed ahead of the 2026 season, a compressed timeline for construction.
The Boston NWSL team and the city of Boston have also faced challenges beyond the growing costs and financial commitment from the city.
Next Tuesday, the team and the city (as well as the trust that oversees the land White Stadium is on) will head to trial and defend the stadium renovation. A group of local citizens and the Emerald Neck Conservancy, a private, non-profit organization, filed a lawsuit alleging the development of White Stadium violates an article of the Massachusetts Constitution, as they view it as an existing public facility and thus the privatization of public land.
In March 2024, a Suffolk Superior Court judge, Sarah Weyland Ellis, denied the local residents and the conservancy an injunction to halt the planned renovation of White Stadium. The plaintiffs said the demolition and renovation of White Stadium would cause irreparable harm — the legal standard needing to be met — as it would “negatively change the nature of White Stadium, limit the public’s enjoyment, and have an immediate detrimental impact on the neighborhoods abutting Franklin Park.”
The judge simply wrote after summing up their assertions, “I am not persuaded.”
The White Stadium renovation plan has become a talking point in this year’s Boston mayoral race as well, with current mayor Michelle Wu backing the project and the NWSL club itself. Josh Kraft, son of New England Patriots and New England Revolution owner Robert Kraft, announced his intent to challenge Wu in the race and has called for her to cancel the lease of White Stadium to the Boston NWSL team, according to The Boston Herald.
The Kraft family is working to build a soccer-specific stadium for the Revolution in Everett, Mass., which requires a mitigation agreement with the city of Boston. Polling conducted in February indicated early support for Wu in her re-election, as well as the White Stadium renovations and the incoming NWSL team. In a poll conducted by Emerson College, 43 percent of respondents indicated they would vote for Wu and 29 percent for Kraft, with 24 percent still undecided. Over half of all respondents of the Emerson College poll indicated they supported the stadium redevelopment (52.8 percent), while 21.5 percent opposed and 25.7 percent said they were unsure.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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