Sitting in front of the media earlier this month, every statement from Bay FC’s players sounded like a plea.
“We can’t wait to give [fans] the results they deserve,” says the team’s No 10, Deyna Castellanos.
“Make sure you don’t give up on us,” says Zambian forward Racheal Kundananji, who joined Bay FC for a world record transfer fee earlier this year.
Earlier, the pair’s seamless partnership had produced two spectacular goals that briefly tied the game against the Portland Thorns at 2-2. That was before a goal from the Portland’s Sophia Smith sealed the latest heartbreaker – and fifth defeat – in Bay FC’s short history.
“We’re going to figure it out,” says Bay FC’s coach, Albertin Montoya. “We’re so close.”
Bay FC play their home games at PayPal Park, right across from San Jose airport’s runway. Their debut season in the NWSL marks the return of top-tier women’s soccer to the San Francisco Bay Area. But whereas their predecessors, the star-studded FC Gold Pride, once thrived on the pitch while failing to spark much interest from potential fans, Bay FC seemingly had their players’ faces plastered in every bus and train station in the region before they even set foot on the pitch. Boosted by that robust marketing campaign, the franchise finally took off in March, and their first home game sold out their 18,000 capacity stadium.
On the playing side, the landing has been uneven, if not outright bumpy. Ten games into the season, the team have been competitive in every match. Yet they have failed to hold on to leads, have a habit of conceding early goals and lost their captain, Alex Loera, to an ACL tear. As a result, they sit 11th out of 14 teams in the NWSL table, having allowed a league-high 21 goals. (Some context is useful here: the Utah Royals, this season’s other expansion team, are last in the standings.)
There’s a fear that a poor run of form could stunt Bay FC’s growth, even though the fans have continued to show up. But in their most recent home game they came from behind to beat San Diego Wave 2-1, and the team showed signs of growing confidence and a previously elusive ability to win close games. Perhaps, finally, here was a momentum builder for the team.
Winning roots
On the cold and drizzly night of 30 March, it took Brandi Chastain’s euphoric howling and hollering to get the crowd out from under their blankets for Bay FC’s home opener.
“We’re gonna bring it here every time, everything, every day,” the Bay FC co-founder screamed over the microphone.
As if on command, the navy blue and poppy red crowd at PayPal Park rose – and they didn’t quieten down for the rest of the match.
Chastain understood the gravity of the event. The former USWNT star – whose celebration when she scored the decisive penalty in the 1999 World Cup final has become one of the most famous images in the game’s history – had been here before, and she knew success is no certain thing. During her playing career, she had been a part of two Bay Area teams, and both had failed.
She had been part of FC Gold Pride, and had also won the short-lived Women’s United Soccer Association with the San Jose CyberRays in 2001. Neither team managed to build the foundations needed to succeed.
“Those were the days of individual owners who wanted to give their daughters role models and wanted to support the game that their daughters loved so much,” Chastain says. “So it really wasn’t a sustainable league.”
FC Gold Pride are a particularly striking example. They had an annual budget of $3m, and the family-owned team bounced around the country playing at venues without locker rooms, dealing with inferior playing surfaces and accommodation. To build community and increase ticket sales, players like Canada’s Christine Sinclair and Brazil’s Sissi were put on the phone with season ticket holders and sent on recruiting trips to local parks and soccer fields.
Talent wasn’t a problem: during their existence they had stars such as Sinclair, Sissi, Chastain and four-time Fifa Player of the Year Marta (she went on to win the award twice more). Perhaps unsurprisingly, they claimed the title in 2010 after pummeling the Philadelphia Independence 4-0 in the final. But even with their colossal star power and on-field success, FC Gold Pride failed to break the 4,000-mark in attendance or gain any traction with sponsors and media. They folded later that year with losses of $5m.
Bay FC hope to do things differently. Propelled by a record $125m investment from private equity firm Sixth Street, the team set up shop in just eight months and attracted a committed following that seemed to have been waiting for their birth. Sold on the promise of building something special, a stellar group of international players was lured away from clubs like Manchester City, Barcelona and Arsenal. Behind the scenes, the club enlisted former brass from the NBA’s Golden State Warriors to their executive team and appointed big names such as former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg and former Warriors president Rick Welts to their board.
Known as the Founding Four, Chastain and fellow US national team veterans Leslie Osborne, Aly Wagner and Danielle Slaton were the public face of Bay FC during the team-building process. Now they sit back, trying to build a culture and set a standard for women’s sports.
“We’ve all had some pretty incredible experiences and also some pretty shitty experiences,” Osborne says. “We have been working on this our whole career without even knowing it, and now is our opportunity to create a club where every decision made is based around the players.”
The story of FC Gold Pride is one they say they have learned from.
“It’s very critical that we remember where we come from, how hard it was and how many people did not have this opportunity,” Chastain says.
It’s a sign of the health of women’s soccer in the US that Bay FC have arrived in a more competitive league than FC Gold Pride did. That’s evident in Bay FC’s record so far this season. But there’s no panic at the club.
“If we don’t learn the lessons over time, that’s when we should be concerned,” Chastain says.
Bay 3.0
Bay FC’s ties to their predecessors in the area include the attack-minded, pass-happy style of play favored by Montoya, who was also head coach of FC Gold Pride’s championship team and an assistant coach for the CyberRays. And it is the team’s distinct identity that has kept their supporters entertained and engaged despite the lack of results. Even in defeat, every home game has ended with a loud ovation for a team toiling to find their groove.
“We’re not gonna give up. We’re gonna continue playing our football,” Montoya says after Bay FC’s loss to Portland.
In a league with teams that were well established years before Bay FC were even conceived, a winning season is a high bar for an expansion team. The founding members and Montoya himself will tell you that much. Yet their competitive hunger and winning ambition haven’t taken long to reveal themselves.
“It’s a new team, but it’s not going to be a new team in two or three games,” the coach promised after the Thorns game. “You’ll see.”
Three games later, Bay FC stepped up and beat San Diego Wave. The future beckons.
