Boston Women's Sports

Not a Bad Dream

RevEverett

NWSL Boston’s Name Launch Fizzles

By Abbi Holt; Edited by Laura Everett

When the new NWSL Boston franchise’s name was dropped Monday October 14 by the intrepid Sandra Herrera the reaction was swift and uniform.  No, thank you. We do not want to be citizens of the newly dubbed, “BOS Nation.” Many hoped that they would wake up to an official launch of a different name and her reporting would all just be a bad dream.

Sadly, the club itself confirmed the name “BOS Nation” at 9:30 am Tuesday morning in a flurry of national television appearances, and rounded out the announcement with a video including the tagline “too many balls,” brainchild of the local ad agency Colossus.  The ad featured all Boston’s men’s professional leagues and their various sports balls, while completely leaving out the winning Boston women’s pro teams.  The video has since been pulled off multiple platforms, as multiple speakers listed as attending the launch party evaporated as well. You can still watch the original video here:

Both the video, and the launch party on Tuesday evening, set the course the ownership group followed to their less-than-inspiring goal. From the brand’s worldview, Boston is united by this team to become its own, new, transcendent diverse nation, uniting all of Boston’s disparate communities in one glorious “Relentless Raspberry,” green, gold, and black vision “for the love of the beautiful game.”  What became quickly clear by the reaction on social media (and the messages blowing up my phone), however, was that the ownership and marketing groups had not asked someone, or possibly anyone, outside of their circle. Nearly everyone was offended by the juvenile, gender essentialist, and transphobic balls joke, if it was a joke at all.  The only positive feedback to be found was that the colors were good.  

Very quickly fans launched a petition drive to change the name.  Signatures and name suggestions flowed in quickly: Coven, Boston United, witches, Emeralds.  Our suggestion of the Latin Bostonia which even got a mention in the comments and, later, glow up by local graphic designer Sean Gauthier.

At the launch event that night the investors did mention both fan input and “external partners,” Boston’s “native language” of sarcasm and the City of Boston representatives who wanted the name to be a “balance of ‘mission’ and ‘ambition’” as their inspiration but were clear that they came up with the idea as a synthesis of the “patterns” they saw in that feedback.

At the event several names that had been on the agenda sent to the press were notably absent.  Both Sam Mewis and Aly Raisman, local women’s sports legends, were no-shows which left the only soccer player speaking a man, USMNT and former Revolution player Charlie Davies.  This was all the more surprising given that Raisman is recent investor.  Lauren Cheney Holiday and Kristine Lilly, retired and decorated USWNT  players, were both present but did not address the crowd.  A protester in the back lifted up a sign saying “No room for Transphobia”

One local fan, Horizon S., a Black woman,  Bostonian by birth and long time soccer fan, said “I am deeply disappointed with the rollout of “BOS Nation FC
Why center men in their campaign?” she asked, noting that the “campaign video showed an alarming lack of representation for people with disabilities, women of color, and other diverse voices.”  She also noted that the name choice didn’t leave a lot of great names to call their fans. Citing another stakeholder, Stephanie Connaughton’s comments that the investors expect the fanbase to be majority male, “do they not understand what the average woman’s soccer fan looks like?…the video (the investors posted) showed an alarming lack of representation for people with disabilities, women of color and other diverse voices.”  It only takes a quick look at the supporters sections of nearby teams like Gotham FC in NY to prove her point.

After their remarks, investors did circulate and seemed to listen intently to fans’ feedback and by all reports they got an earful.  To their credit, a little after noon the next day, they issued an apology for the “balls” campaign and noted in particular the ways that hurt the Transgender community. 

No apology or acknowledgement has yet been made for the complete erasure of the other women’s professional teams of Boston, even prompting a response from Sam Mewis herself.

After the partial apology by ownership, the muted response by fans was generally along the lines of “good start, do better, listen to us and change the name.”

The ownership group, and the marketing team in particular has done a lot of talking over the past few days. What waits to be seen is if they will do some better listening and reflecting going forward. Because right now, what should have been a glorious launch has become a national punchline.

Update: The BOS Nation display in Dick’s sporting good was taken down by Saturday morning 10/19.

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