We know Boston & the NWSL has a reputation for anti-Black racism. Let’s address it in a proactive proposal to bring a new women’s professional soccer team to Boston.

By Laura Everett, 1/13/23

Two things are happening at once: 

1. The National Women’s Soccer League is poised to expand due to excellent players and growing interest,
2. The National Women’s Soccer League must address systemic racial and sexual abuse within its ranks. 

Given the past ten years of underinvestment and studied neglect, confidence in the NWSL’s ability to root out the rot is marginal at best. Trust that must be established between players, staff, and fans. The Yates reportand the joint NWSL/NWSL Players Association Report were damning. We’re not at a rebuilding phase. Trust has to be built. From a firm foundation.

Which is all the more reason why the cities putting forth expansion bids ought to have proposals that proactively address racial, sexual, and homophobic abuse written into their bid process. Build a firm foundation from the start of new teams. To ignore the wider context of abuse in women’s sports in general and the NWSL in particular would be naïve and cruel. 

In particular, for Boston to make a strong, compelling and ultimately winning bid, we in particular need to put forth an anti-racist NWSL bid proposal. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s good business.

The four cities vying for the two expansion spots in the National Women’s Soccer League are not exactly hot beds of Black thriving: Salt Lake City, Tampa, San Francisco (née Bay Area) and Boston. Just listen to theDecember 20, 2023 episode of Diaspora United at 1:06 to approx. 1:15. Courtney Stith asks, “How can you enact these chances that have come out of this report, while actively doing things that go in the face of it through expansion? To me? It’s giving white feminism.”

Skye fairly asks, “I don’t just think about moving to a place as an engineer. I think of it as ‘Is it safe for being Black?’ ‘Is it safe for me being LGBT?’ ‘Is it safe for me as a woman?’ ‘Is it safe for me at all those intersection?’ Because some of those intersections are safe and some of those is dangerous. Boston historically has an issue being hella racist. Who is going to be safe up there?”  

Hear the grim laughter when the panel of Black women soccer professionals discusses the prospects of these cities, especially Boston. We need to hear this, Boston. 

Boston’s bid comes from an all-female investors group, as reported by the Boston Globe, backed by: 

• Jennifer Epstein, founder of Juno Equity and the daughter of Celtics co-owner Robert Epstein, the investment group’s controlling owner 
• Anna Palmer, a general partner at Flybridge Capital
• Stephanie Connaughton, an angel investor, advisor and mentor with early stage start-ups
• Ami Kuan Danoff, co-founder and CFO of the Women’s Foundation of Boston, as managing partners.

Additionally, the Boston NWSL bid is backed by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Ami Kuan Danoff and Mayor Michelle Wu are both Asian and the other three women are white.  The Globe also named Linda Henry, Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Globe, “as one of the smaller investors in the Boston group.” Henry, a fourth white woman in the group, has invested in the WNBA in the past, and her family owns Fenway Sports Groupwhose holdings include Liverpool Football’s women’s team.  

Given the historic dynamics of race, gender, power, and wealth in Boston, and a bid process where the majority owner has to demonstrate $40 million and the group shows $70m, it’s not too surprising that the majority funders of are white. All Bostonians committed to closing the racial wealth gap and economic equality should have the numbers of the 2015 Federal Reserve Bank study memorized: In greater Boston, white households have a median wealth of $247,500, Hispanic households have a media wealth of $2,700, and U.S. Blacks have a median wealth of $8. Though the data is dated, this is the economic reality of our majority-minority city. 

Why does this matter for a NWSL expansion bid? Because telling the truth instead of ad campaigns sets us free. And this is how we build true community. And what we’re talking about in an NWSL bid is creating a new work environment for players and staff, and a new product to engage with for fans and neighbors. So for potential employees, we need to address why or why not they’d want to come to work in Boston. And for potential fans, we need to address why this is a product we’d be willing to support. We have the opportunity from the start to build something different. Don’t build the new Seaport again.

Here is a modest Ten Point proposal to begin an antiracist NWSL to Boston Bid. I readily acknowledge my limitations as a white woman in this work, and welcome comment and correction. 

Ten Starting Points for an Antiracist NWSL Boston Bid:

1. Acknowledge Boston has a racism problem. Speak of this often. 
2. Hire experts and let them lead- like Anti Racist Soccer Club
3. Listen carefully to those Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous athletes who played women’s soccer here previously. Learn what would have made their experience better and implement those practices in the Boston bid.
4. Ask the Black Women’s Players Collective what allows them to thrive in other markets, and pay them for their wisdom.
5. Seek out, pay and listen to local leaders in Black organizing efforts to make Boston more hospitable and less awful. 
6. Walk the neighborhoods around potential stadiums and listen, rather than run ad campaigns. 
7. Build strong and early relationships with Supporters Groups and local media of color and those led by women and queer folx. This does not mean American Outlaws. 
8. Listen to all the excellent media already being produced about the overwhelming whiteness of American soccer culture. Recommended listening includes: Entire 2 Cent Family, Shea Butter FC, Diaspora United. 
9. Commit now to the Anti Racist Soccer Club Ten Point Plan as part of the founding vision of the Boston NWSL Club.
10. Name and commit funds to ongoing antiracist efforts for the Boston NWSL Club. 

I, and others, have more ideas and specifics that need to be put in place for a seriously antiracist bid for a NWSL team in Boston. But this isn’t volunteer work. Antiracism work requires the long-term devotion of the new owners, investors in addition to the front office, coaches, players fans and wider community. Walking through this process needs to be compensated for the expertise and skill required to do this well. This is as incredibly serious as it is joyful. This is how we get free: by addressing, not ignoring our problems. 

Thus far, the NWSL has shown it largely unwilling to address the white supremacy, misogyny, heteronormativity, and economic exploitation endemic in the league. The Boston bid has an opportunity to begin a new team in a different way. I look forward to this championship city taking up the challenge. We’ve led before; we can do it again.