The Future Is Bright For Women's Pro Soccer, Say Bay FC Founders

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Oracle Park's third-floor concourse was full of people and anticipation on Friday afternoon. Just outside was a sunny, stunning view of a baseball-field-turned-soccer-pitch in preparation for the Bay FC match against the Washington Spirit Saturday.

“The first thing that I see [looking out at the pitch] is just how vast it looks. That, to me, is representative of how big women's soccer has become, and yet we have so much more land that we can occupy and people that we can influence,” said Brandi Chastain, Bay FC co-founder.

The many in attendance were there to hear Chastain’s and others’ perspectives on the Bay Football Club and, more largely, the growth and future of women’s professional soccer and sports.

Chastain and fellow former U.S. Women’s National Team players Leslie Osborne, Aly Wagner and Danielle Slaton (not in attendance) launched Bay FC in 2023; the team, part of the National Women’s Soccer League, had their inaugural season in 2024.

“I'm proud of our club. I'm proud of us four getting together five years ago and coming up with something that we all believed in,” said Osborne. “There were people that didn't believe in us, and we were told that a lot of times, and I think about those hard days, those tough meetings that we had, the times we looked at each other and were like, ‘I don't know if we can do this.’ But we kept going, and we kept pushing,” she said.

Wagner, for one, was driven to bring Bay FC “to life” to achieve new standards and become leaders in the women’s sports space.

“When we go back to that initial inception point, we realized that we wanted to break the mold on what is possible in women's sports … and prove that women's football, women's sports, and women's club teams can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the top men's brands around the world, and this is one step in that process,” Wagner said.

“It’s incredibly humbling and rewarding to be a part of the journey, but we still know that there's a lot of work to be done to continue to make that a reality,” she added.

Tomorrow marks the first women’s professional soccer game in Oracle Park’s history. The match has also set a new NWSL attendance record: over 35,000 tickets have already been sold, with the total number expected to reach 40,000.

Osborne said it’s going to be an impactful moment for Bay FC players — and for the team itself.

“I know that our players are going to look at each other and realize how lucky they are. Like Brandi said, ‘We’re just getting started.’ Two years from now, maybe we’ll sell out Levi’s Stadium. That’s the road we’re on,” she said.

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