THE 15th National Women’s Soccer League expansion team was unveiled this week with Boston’s new team name and colours being launched – BOS Nation FC.
The name is an anagram of ‘Bostonian’, but fans have sparked annoyance at the branding online.
‘Bos’ is also latin for cow, fun fact, but completely irrelevant.
Their confirmed club colours are: Relentless Raspberry, Loyal Charcoal, Daring Pink, Rise Yellow and Orange Press.
The launch was run by Colossus Creative Co. who thanked their clients “for having the guts to be wildly provocative with this launch.”
BOS Nation FC is now registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office, as well as their main slogan for the launch campaign – “THERE ARE TOO MANY BALLS IN THIS TOWN”.
Prior to this week’s launch, fans and sceptics were directed to toomanyballs.com (the site no longer exists) which acted as a placeholder for the marketing campaign.
Interestingly, Colossus Creative have since deleted an Instagram reel that had the above slogan emblazoned on it, and they turned off comments on their original Instagram post announcing the launch of Boston’s new team’s name.
Canadian international and Seattle Reign midfielder, Quinn, who is an openly trans, non-binary player left a comment on the NWSL and NWSL Boston’s announcement, saying: “Feels transphobic. Yikes.”
In Colossus’ attempt to be edgy and bold, they have instead seemingly reduced the city’s sporting heritage to gender and genitalia discourse.
In their thanks, Colossus also acknowledged the support of some of Boston’s sporting teams: Celtics (NBA), Patriots (NFL), Bruins (NHL), and Red Sox (MLB).
However, it didn’t slip past anyone that only the male sporting teams were a part of BOS Nation’s launch.
Meg Linehan, a senior writer at The Athletic for the US Women’s National Team and NWSL, noted that Boston Fleet (PWHL), Beantown RFC (WPL) and Boston Renegades (WFA Pro) were not included.
Fleet were finalists in last year’s PWHL series and the Renegades have won five national championship titles in the last six seasons.
In September 2023, when it was first announced that the NWSL would be returning to Boston (Boston Breakers dissolved from the league in 2018), NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said: “I’m excited to expand the NWSL’s footprint and continue its transformative growth in our return to Boston, one of the world’s most iconic sports cities.”
It leaves one to question then, why was the marketing campaign highlighting Boston’s men’s teams and why did they make effort to insinuate that the city is overrun with “balls” when it is already home to successful women’s sporting heritage?
Jennifer Epstein is the team’s controlling owner; director and actress Elizabeth Banks and retired gymnast Aly Raisman have been named as investors.
Female celebrities have been attracted to the idea of supporting and investing in the NWSL since Natalie Portman, alongside Kara Nortman, Julie Uhrman, and Alexis Ohanian, established LA’s Angel City FC.
Names such as America Ferrera, Eva Longoria and Brittany Mahomes have since been added to ownership groups of NWSL teams.
Based on the outpouring of distaste towards the team’s new name, it’s any wonder if someone with such a strong creative repertoire as Elizabeth Banks had any input in the decision.
But it wouldn’t be an NWSL team without a strange name (Boston FC and FC Boston were rumoured to be rejected decisions).
Most NWSL teams have some kind of name that doesn’t necessarily refer to the team’s location, for example, Angel City, or are solely referred to by the second part of their name – Pride (Orlando), Gotham (New York/New Jersey), Reign (Seattle).
24 hours after the launch, the team released a statement following the backlash, saying that they acknowledge that their campaign did not “reflect the safe and welcoming environment we strive to create for all.”
There’s more than one element of BOS Nation’s name launch that’s been unpacked, but the thing that has remained a constant is the collective lack of acceptance.
It was certainly a ballsy decision to adopt their chosen marketing strategy, but it may have proven to be a colossal mistake.
