Usseglio: Shocked and Disappointed

BOS Nation FC’s first impression was not a good one

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

A fresh start. Joy. Positivity. Hope. Expectations. Community. Esperanza. Posibilidad. These are some of the emotions that come to mind when I think about a new sports team. Unfortunately, the tenor and feeling surrounding the campaign and unveiling of BOS Nation FC was completely the opposite.

The name is confusing. The campaign was vulgar, transphobic, cringey, juvenile, off-putting, and overtly focused on men. And to be honest, this is me being nice. nicer than the ownership group of BOS Nation FC deserves.

For the life of me, I cannot understand how they thought any of this was a good idea. The lack of awareness is concerning, and I hope moving forward the ownership group will do better through their actions and not just their words.

On the one hand, from a purely marketing perspective, it is horrifying that the Too Many Balls campaign got approved. From the sporting side, how could anyone have thought this was a good name for a team? The entire rollout, in my opinion, felt like the result of corporate decisions made in a boardroom.

Without input from soccer people. Without input from the community. Because I truly believe if soccer people and community members had been in the room, things would have played out differently. Maybe I am mistaken, but that is how I feel.

The ownership group has seemingly prioritized market research over community engagement, as mentioned in the great work published in The Blazing Musket by Jackie Contreras, Sam Minton, and Kelsea Durham. Because of this market research, the ownership group decided to focus on advertising to men because men would make up the majority of their fanbase, not women. They chose to focus exclusively on the male Boston sports fan instead of tapping into the great, existing women’s soccer fanbase in Boston that have been waiting for a new team since the Breakers folded. They decided that a high school level humor campaign about genitalia was the best approach to get people to buy in.

Soccer clubs are supposed to be part of the community, not businesses run from a corporate office.

Do better BOS Nation FC.

Make the community a part of the club. Invest in them from the beginning. Give them a voice and be in partnership with them. This is the opportunity you had. Instead, you treated it like a business.

The one silver lining is that there is still time. Time to change the name. Time to actually engage with the community and work together to build the future of this club.

It is amazing that the NWSL and professional women’s soccer are returning to Boston. There is room for everyone, and everyone should be at the table. Not just the professional men’s team, but all of the professional teams. The Renegades, the Fleet, the Sun. Everyone.

All of our sports teams’ successes should be celebrated. Our sports community is the best in the world. We should all embrace and cheer each other on. NWSL Boston can be a special team. Their second impression just needs to be lightyears better than their first.