Bay FC Aims to be “Authentic Citizens” Through Civic Efforts

Sporting events are more than entertainment. They are often a rallying point for the cities where they take place. They give fans a sense of collective identity.

Those involved with Bay Football Club (Bay FC), a local women’s professional soccer team in its inaugural season, believe embedding themselves in the community is the best way to achieve that goal.

Four retired footballers — Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton, and Aly Wagner — founded the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team. All have strong ties to the Bay Area.

With the team’s first season coming to a close, Bay FC has hit the ground running with a variety of civic efforts designed to foster connections throughout the area.

“Unwinding the city of Liverpool from Liverpool [Football Club] is impossible. When we started [Bay FC], that is what we wanted,” Slaton said. “In many ways, it is generational. In some ways, it is just time and being there authentically.”

Whether it is the team’s book club, soccer clinics for kids, breast cancer awareness or reading to children at local libraries, Slaton said the team’s civic effort is about getting buy-in from the communities across the Bay Area.

Although it is an ambitious goal, Slaton said Bay FC wants to be a regional team, one that is “woven into the fabric” of its fandom.

Lisa Goodwin-Scharff, executive vice president of communications and government relations for the team, said Bay FC strives to be “fan-inclusive and player-centric.” The team gets involved with events that bolster the team’s principles of access and leadership.

“We have had people say it is an environment like no other, and that is what we like to hear,” she said of the atmosphere at PayPal Park, Bay FC’s home field. “We would like to one day be a world global franchise, and I think that starts here locally with how people feel connected to our brand.”

One focus is removing barriers for girls getting involved — and staying involved — in athletics. Barriers such as issues surrounding body image, mental health, injury recovery or feminine health prevent girls from becoming athletes. Bay FC partners with Sutter Health toward that end.

Goodwin-Scharff said the effort is “about connecting with the right groups and the right communities,” a sentiment Slaton echoed. While the effort is still new, Slaton said the team is looking for opportunities for partners whose goals align with the team’s pillar values.

Partners that are simply sponsors, donating money to the team’s civic efforts as a way to promote their brand, are great, but Goodwin-Scharff said simply doing that would be a missed opportunity. Ideally, she said, a partner would go “deeper than that,” and “help the team, help the community, help the fans.”

The team is looking for ways to be “authentic citizens,” Slaton said, really understanding what matters to their fans and the wider community in which the team exists. Tracking long-term impact through a variety of measures such as satisfaction surveys and overall engagement goes a long way toward that goal, she added.

“This is my home,” she said. “We are trying to not just show up … we want to have impact; we don’t just want to help temporarily.”