Today, The Town FC announced their intentions to pursue bringing the NWSL, the top flight women’s soccer league in the US, to Oakland and the East Bay. Partnered with the African American Sports & Entertainment Group (AASEG), The Town FC and AASEG want to put Oakland on the women’s soccer map by not only expanding their programs to professional women’s soccer, but also creating youth focused soccer programs and organizing international exhibition games at the Oakland Coliseum.

“The two groups look forward to realizing that opportunity,” said their joint press release, “and are working together to develop what they hope can become the best women’s soccer team that the world has ever seen.”

A screenshot of The Town FC’s website, showing their mission to be a team for the people of Oakland and East Bay.

The prospective group is only in the beginning phases of their mission, and the specifics and details are still taking shape. Those details could entail figuring out where a team would train, where they’d play, where players would live (per recent CBA negotiations, teams must cover their players’ housing year round), and potential funding streams. All of these are things the NWSL and its commissioner, Jessica Berman, have said in the past they take into consideration when weighing potential expansion locations.

With the Raiders in Vegas, the A’s potentially soon to follow, and the Warriors in their new home on the other side of the bay, Oakland and its community is hungry for professional sports, as evident in its support of the other soccer franchise in Oakland, the Oakland Roots. And as the 6th largest TV market in the US, women’s sports leagues like the NWSL and WNBA have for many years stated the Bay Area as a location they hope to expand to eventually.

Since bids are due to the league this Friday for teams hoping to play in 2024, The Town FC and AASEG have plenty of time to figure out the details and get their community excited. However, another Bay Area group hoping to bring NWSL to the Bay Area is a few steps ahead of them and has not only announced their intentions to bring in an NWSL team (although in South Bay specifically), but has presumably submitted a bid for this expansion cycle.

With the league expanding into huge markets like Los Angeles and San Diego and bringing in hundreds of thousands of TV viewers during season games and almost a million for the NWSL Championship held last week, NWSL teams are in hot demand. The Bay Area could support two NWSL teams (historically they’ve done so for bigger sports like the NFL and MLB) and it might be an interesting rivalry. But as a smaller league that’s still growing and in a competitive media market, the NWSL might only want one team in the area and if the San Jose group is accepted this cycle, it’s uncertain if their contract with the league would include verbiage on territory rights.

The Town FC and AASEG right now though is focused on building up their own community, and expanding their programs to serve more people and more neighborhoods in the East Bay region. “The work ahead in the coming months [presents] a unique opportunity for members of our community,” the two groups stated, “and for lovers of the beautiful game of soccer, to share your voice in the formation of our club.”

You can learn more about the group at: www.thetownfc.com.

-Elisabeth Schendel