Starting a sports team in Boston isn’t easy. What makes Boston Legacy FC believe it has what it takes?
The Legacy’s ownership group bought into the NWSL for an expansion fee of $53 million. After getting the franchise, the group brokered a partnership deal with Mayor Michelle Wu to renovate ancient White Stadium in Franklin Park for the team’s permanent home.
A ballooning price tag and controversy followed — the stadium is far from ready — but the mayor and Legacy partners are committed to the project and the team plans to play there starting in 2027. Meanwhile, almost 4,000 season tickets have been sold and Legacy FC expects more than 25,000 at Gillette for Saturday’s opener against defending NWSL champion Gotham FC.
“It starts now in 2026,” says Epstein. “We enter this year with great ambition. We take the responsibility of launching Boston’s next professional sports team very seriously. We have priorities in Year 1 that will allow us to build and have long-term sustainability.”
Does she think Legacy FC can earn a slice of the sports pie dominated by the Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, and Bruins?
“One hundred percent,” says Epstein. ”We can be the fifth, or sixth, recognized in the same way — acknowledging that the Boston Fleet [women’s professional hockey] started to write the story ahead of us for women’s sports. We’re going to establish a competitive on-field identity. We want to be winning games. We know that’s expected here. We want to deliver a sustainable model for the long term and part of that is delivering an exceptional fan experience. We need to build repeat attendance and community habits.”
Deep pockets and good intentions aside, kick-starting a Hub sports team is an ambitious undertaking for any group. The Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, and Bruins have been the four horsemen of Boston’s professional sports landscape since the Pats were founded by Billy Sullivan 66 years ago. The skeleton frames and broken dreams of New England sports start-ups that failed are easily found in bankruptcy filings and faded newspaper clips from the past 100 years.
Anybody remember the Boston Bolts, who played indoor lacrosse at the old Boston Garden with no air conditioning in the summer of 1975? How about the Boston Lobsters, named by Bud Collins, owned by Bob Kraft, who played in the World Team Tennis league (men’s and women’s) at Boston University’s Walter Brown Arena, also in the 1970s? The Lobsters were coached by Transylvania-born Ion Tiriac, a.k.a. “Count Dracula.” Patriots lineman Sugar Bear Hamilton moonlighted as a flamboyant line judge, and labeled the spectacle “disco tennis.”
More recently (this century), women’s professional soccer has been offered on the local sports smorgasbord, but it was not profitable.
Riding the wave of United States women’s soccer after Brandi Chastain and friends won the World Cup in 1999, the Boston Breakers were formed in 2000, part of the original Women’s United Soccer Association. When that league floundered, the Breakers became part of two more upstart leagues before joining the NWSL as one of its Original Eight in 2013, playing home games at Dilboy Stadium in Somerville. They went to Harvard Stadium a year later and were still playing in Cambridge when the team folded before the 2018 season.
How will Legacy FC be different?
“There are a lot of great stories that come from the time the Breakers were playing in Boston,” says Epstein. “Many of the best players in the world spent time playing for the Breakers and there is still a passionate fan base that has stuck around, hoping that women’s professional soccer will return. But that really was a different time in women’s sports. One of the things we are doing is leaning into our investment in our infrastructure. Those are the people that make up both the business and sporting side of our organization and our actual facilities.”
Ah, the “facilities.” A hot-button issue for Legacy FC.
New Englanders of a certain age remember the growing pains of the AFL Patriots when they were trying to find a home in the 1960s. The “Boston Patriots” played at BU, Fenway Park, Boston College, and Harvard in their first decade, before the aluminum palace first known as Schaefer Stadium opened in 1971. The Patriots have been on that same site ever since.
Waiting for White Stadium (plans call for 10,500 seats) to be ready, the Legacy this season will play eight home games at Gillette and seven at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I.
“Ultimately we’re driving toward what will be our home stadium and our public-private partnership with the city of Boston to play at White Stadium,” says Epstein. “We will be the soccer club in the city.”
The Legacy also will be one of the few American sports franchises primarily owned and run by women. Limited partners include actress Elizabeth Banks, gold medalist Aly Raisman, WNBA star Aliyah Boston, plus Celtics boss Brad Stevens and his wife, Tracy.
Women dominate the masthead at Legacy FC. In addition to the club’s four founders, the coach (Filipa Patão), team president (Jennifer van Dijk), chief revenue officer (Amina Bulman), and chief legal officer (Kim Miner) are women. The biggest investor outside of the four founders is the Monarch Collective, the first private-equity fund investing totally in women’s sports.
“We’re certainly not against bringing men into the organization and there are plenty [including general manager Domè Guasch],” says Epstein. “But I think we are unique. I think perhaps we are the only professional sports team where the four managing partners are women. If I’m wrong in that, I’m sure we’re the only professional sports team where the managing partners have an average height of 5-foot-1.”
“Massachusetts has always been a place where sports bring people together, and we’re proud of being the state of champions,” said Governor Maura Healey. “Welcoming the Boston Legacy FC is a powerful moment for women’s sports and for the incredible athletes who inspire the next generation across our state. We’re seeing incredible momentum for women’s sports across Massachusetts, and I’m excited to see fans rally around this team.”
⋅ Quiz: 1: Name the most recent player from each Atlantic Division franchise (Celtics, Knicks, Nets, Raptors, 76ers) to be named to the All-NBA first team; 2: Name four baseball Hall of Famers who played in at least 2,500 games but never made it to a World Series (answers below).
⋅ Sorry, Jaylen Brown fans. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is going to be NBA MVP and it won’t be particularly close. At this hour, Brown should be rethinking his declaration of war on NBA officials. It’s not helpful.
⋅ Wilt Chamberlain. Kobe Bryant. Bam Adebayo? It’s got a certain “Ruth-Gehrig-DiMaggio-Mantle-Costanza” feel to it. But it happened. Miami’s big man scored 83 points against the Wizards (who should be relegated) Tuesday. All it took was 43 field goal attempts, and 43 free throws. Bam’s big game put him second all time in NBA history. Wilt scored 100 in a game in 1962 and Kobe went for 81 in 2006.
Heat center Bam Adebayo (right) scored 83 points against the Wizards Tuesday night.Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press
⋅ Robert Parish upcoming local book signings: March 18 at the Garden’s Pro Shop from 4-4:45 and 5:30-6:30 p.m.; Balin Books in Nashua, N.H., March 19 from 5:30-6:30; and Wellesley Books, March 20 from 4-5:30. Parish’s tome, “The Chief,” penned with Jake Uitti, includes a couple of pages in which Parish discusses a domestic violence accusation levied by his ex-wife, Nancy Saad Parish, after a violent encounter at the Celtics’ hotel in Los Angeles during the 1987 NBA Finals. The couple divorced in 1990, and in 1998 Sports Illustrated published a report in which Nancy Parish said she spent at week in a hospital after the hotel assault. Explaining the episode in his book, Parish writes, “I grabbed her arm and pushed her out, across the hallway . . . I am fully willing to admit that an action like that is an assault. But I also want to make it clear: I did not hit her, nor did I choke her. I pushed her once to exit my room . . . I should not have done that.”
⋅ Bishop Feehan’s 6-foot-9-inch center Brody Bumila, who scored 51 points with 22 rebounds in a Division 1 semifinal win over Andover, would rather be Roger Clemens than Patrick Ewing. A fireballing lefthander, Bumila has committed to play baseball for the Texas Longhorns.
⋅ Ultimately, it didn’t prove costly, but it’s hard to look past the abject boobery of Team USA’s World Baseball Classic manager, Mark DeRosa, thinking our guys already had qualified for the knockout round before Tuesday’s embarrassing 8-6 loss to Italy. This guy’s in charge of Aaron Judge, Paul Skenes, Roman Anthony, and Bobby Witt Jr., and he doesn’t even know the rules of the tournament?
Team USA manager Mark DeRosa has advanced to the knockout round of the World Baseball Classic.Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
⋅ This is the sixth WBC. Past winners are Japan (2006, ’09, ’23), the Dominican Republic (‘13), and the United States (’17). The last WBC famously ended with Shohei Ohtani striking out Mike Trout to win it for Japan.
Did you know that in six big league seasons, Ohtani has yet to pitch as many innings or compile as many wins as Babe Ruth did in his first two-plus full seasons in the majors? Ohtani has 528⅔ innings and 39 wins. Ruth pitched 564⅓ innings and won 43 games in 1916, ’15, and four games of ’14).
As for Trout, he was reduced to being primarily a DH last season, in which he compiled his worst OPS-plus since 2011, when he was 19. After a nine-year dominance in which he never finished below fifth in MVP voting (winning three times, finishing second four times), he fell off the radar in 2025, striking out in 32 percent of his at-bats and stealing only two bases.
⋅ After a loss to the Heat this past week, Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters, “Boston is a obviously a good team, but we’re not concerned about Boston.” See you in May.
Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff says he’s not concerned with the Celtics.Duane Burleson/Associated Press
⋅ Knicks swingman Josh Hart is the grand-nephew of former Yankees catcher/MVP Elston Howard, and the Yanks are having a Josh Hart Bobblehead Night for a Sept. 25 game against the Orioles. It’s the day before CC Sabathia gets his number retired in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.
⋅ Revenge of Al Skinner: BC fired men’s basketball coach Earl Grant after five seasons. Grant, who replaced Jim Christian in 2021, went 72-92 overall, including 30-67 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Going through four coaches and five athletic directors, BC hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since Skinner’s teams bagged seven bids from 2001-09.
⋅ Say what you want about Geno Auriemma (and I have), the man wins. His UConn Huskies finished 34-0 and go into the NCAA Tournament undefeated for the 11th time in program history. The Huskies have won 50 straight and are seeking their 13th national title.
Geno Auriemma and the UConn women’s basketball team are in search of their 13th national championship.Jessica Hill/Associated Press
⋅ At this, or any time of the year, there’s nothing like the sweet sound of “charges dropped” echoing around Patriot Place.
⋅ Watching Steve Carell’s first episode of “Rooster” on HBO, I was stunned to hear Carell’s character point to a painting of Bobby Orr on the wall of an apartment and proclaim, “Bobby Orr, a native of Kitchener, Ontario.” Huh? We all know Orr is from Parry Sound (he frequently played against the Kitchener Rangers as a lad), but Carell was born at Emerson Hospital in Concord and grew up in Acton, for gosh sakes. Do better!
Steve Carell grew up in Acton, but it appears he needs to brush up on his Bobby Orr history.Katrina Marcinowski/HBO
⋅ Last Saturday night in New York City, MAGA Bob Kraft took time out from firing off angry letters to the Foxborough Select Board to attend Rupert Murdoch’s 95th birthday bash. Other guests included Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and former Trump attorney general William Barr.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Celtics, Jayson Tatum (2025); Knicks, Patrick Ewing (1990); Nets, Jason Kidd (2004); Raptors, none; 76ers, Joel Embiid (2023). 2: Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Andre Dawson, Ernie Banks.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.
