Pro sports teams have run out of names. Here’s why
Less is more, at least when it comes to naming sports teams these days. Boston’s new professional women’s soccer team is the latest franchise to forgo typical conventions, with the organization announcing this week it would be called “Bos Nation FC.” Reaction to the moniker—an anagram of “Bostonian” meant to evoke “Boss Energy,” per the team’s owners—has been mixed but, whether you like such names or not, they are set to become a bigger part of the sports landscape.
When it comes to Major League Soccer or the NWSL, many teams have neglected animal mascots or explicit historical references in favor of names like Real Salt Lake, Minnesota United, New York City FC— a nod to famous clubs in Europe and South America like Real Madrid and Manchester United.
One reason for the shift to more generic names is trademark law. As more teams spring up, particularly as interest in women’s sports surges, there are fewer viable mascot names to go around.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League, created via a merger between competing leagues last year, played its first season with a slate of teams identified only by their city names. While the new league polled fans for recommendations—a common tactic—it discovered that many of the most popular suggestions had already been taken, Amy Scheer, the league’s senior vice president of business operations, told The Wall Steet Journal.
“We’re doing intellectual property across two countries with different laws,” said Scheer, a former executive at the NFL and Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls. “When you go through the process, you feel like, my God, every name is taken already.
Next season, however, the teams will have more traditional names such as the Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens.
Basic branding hits America’s “Big Four” sports leagues
When the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes moved to Utah, the team’s owners needed to buy time while going through a similar process. For now, the team is playing as Utah Hockey Club while fans vote on several options put forward by the organization, with “Yeti” reportedly the frontrunner.
The hockey team’s current branding is for now distantly generic and, for a mascot at home games, it is borrowing the “Jazz Bear” used by its NBA counterpart in Salt Lake City.
The most famous example of a delayed rebrand, however, remains Washington’s NFL team. The organization abandoned its name of over eight decades, the Red Skins, which many Native Americans viewed as a racist epithet.
After two seasons as the Washington Football Team, the franchise finally settled on becoming the “Commanders” in 2022. Many options proposed by fans, such as the “RedWolves,” ran up against trademark concerns. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Indians MLB team chose to drop the longtime name in favor of becoming the Guardians, a local landmark.
Boston’s new women’s soccer team went with a different approach, but it still found a way to invite controversy this week. As the team attempts to carve out space in a sports scene dominated by the city’s historic men’s franchises, it unveiled an ad campaign that irreverently declared, “There are too many balls in this town.”
The provocative advertising enlisted the help of local male sports stars like former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Jaylen Brown of the Celtics. The team scrubbed the campaign a day later, however, apologizing after some fans called it transphobic.
“While we had hoped to create a bold and buzzworthy brand launch campaign, we missed the mark,” the team said in a statement Wednesday.
For now, though, it seems the name is here to stay. It’s a significant departure from “The Boston Breakers,” the city’s previous NWSL franchise that folded in 2018.
