Bay FC

Formation and expansion bid

The San Francisco Bay Area had previously hosted two professional women's soccer teams: the San Jose CyberRays of the Women's United Soccer Association and FC Gold Pride of Women's Professional Soccer. In 2022, former United States women's national team (USWNT) and professional club players Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton, and Aly Wagner announced the founding of a group called "NWSL to the Bay" that would lobby the NWSL for an expansion team in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their efforts to bring NWSL to the Bay started in 2020 just after Angel City in Los Angeles was founded by Kara Nortman, Natalie Portman, and Julie Uhrman. The groups bid would compete from groups in other cities, including Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Toronto, Ontario; St. Louis, Missouri; and Nashville, Tennessee. In late 2022 that the NWSL had narrowed the second of its two 2024 expansion selections to the Bay Area bid, another bid in the former Boston Breakers market of Boston, Massachusetts, and a third bid in Tampa, Florida. By January 2023, further reports suggested that Tampa had been eliminated and that the Bay Area and Boston would both be awarded expansion teams, with expansion fees estimated at $50 million each. The league declined to confirm any reports prior to an official announcement. On April 4, 2023, the league formally awarded one of its two planned 2024 expansion teams to the Bay Area group at…