NWSL team roasted for branding launch

Sometimes, team marketing efforts go spectacularly wrong. The latest example comes via BOS Nation FC, the newly unveiled branding of an NWSL expansion team set to begin play in Boston in 2026.

But while that name itself has taken plenty of criticism, what really went poorly was its launch ad talking about how Boston had “too many balls” with men’s sports, and the accompanying toomanyballs.com website (redirecting to the team website) and accompanying merch. Here’s the ad, featuring many male Boston athletes:

The voiceover goes: “Boston. The city of champions. A legacy filled with trophies, banners, rings, and balls. Old balls. New balls. Steel balls. Cold balls. Even goat balls.” (Prompting a “Wait, what?” from Tom Brady after a goat with a #12 necklace is shown.) “Yeah, Boston loves its balls. But maybe there are too many balls in this town.

“So let’s add a new chapter to our city’s legacy. With new idols, new dreams, and a new league to cheer for. The National Women’s Soccer League. For every person in every neighborhood across every square mile. This is our city, our new team, our new nation. We are BOS Nation, where anything is possible. No balls necessary. Well…[showing one soccer ball being kicked]”

The ad here took immediate and strong criticism on several fronts. Many pointed out how it only talked about men’s sports in Boston, leaving out both past pro women’s soccer (particularly the Boston Breakers : a team under that name played in WUSA from 2001-03, then another one played from 2007-2017 across WPS, WPSL Elite, and the NWSL) and other current women’s sports teams (including the PWHL’s Boston Fleet, the Boston Renegades of the Women’s Football Alliance, and the Beantown RFC women’s rugby club) in the city. The “BOS Nation” branding also drew its own fire.

But the biggest criticism came over the “Too Many Balls” slogan (which the NWSL filed a trademark for ). Some blasted that as inappropriately sexual for a league still dealing with incredible fallout from coaching abuse of power scandals . Others roasted it as sounding like a bad old-school sports blog:

Others thought it was ridiculous for a team in a league that does, after all, use a ball:

But perhaps the most significant criticism here was over the transphobic connotations. That saw Seattle Reign player Quinn (who identifies as non-binary and transgender ) commenting on the NWSL’s post of the initial video on Instagram, having their comment hidden, and then discussing that further:

As Meg Linehan wrote at The Athletic, NWSL Players Association director Meghann Burke also had issues with this:

“A lot of us played for or against the Breakers or went to games. Some of us grew up in New England; some of us (like me) lived in Boston,” NWSL Players Association director Meghann Burke replied when asked for her reaction to the launch, saying that Boston is already primed with women’s soccer fans and sports fans in general.

“The town and the players who will represent them deserve so much more,” Burke continued. “With the work that has gone into laying a strong foundation for Boston’s 2026 launch, I honestly did not perceive this team to be so unserious. I’m holding out hope that this is an elaborate and ingenious joke and that the real team name and campaign telling us what they’re really about will be rolled out soon.”

And so did at least one fan who brought a sign saying there’s no room for transphobia in the NWSL to the team’s launch party Tuesday:

The team’s independent supporters’ organization also weighed in:

For what it’s worth, Linehan’s piece passed on comments from controlling owner Jennifer Epstein at Tuesday’s event in response to Quinn’s remarks and other criticism: “The whole intent behind the brand was to be inclusionary, and so we take that very seriously. And I would look forward to talking to that player and thinking through why this made them feel that way.”

The team also deleted the toomanyballs.com redirect (it’s now a parked domain) early Wednesday morning, and removed the $35 Too Many Balls shirt from its shop. For reference, here’s a screenshot of that shirt:

They also deleted the video in many places, and eventually put out an apology statement on X early Wednesday afternoon:

(The cut-off first paragraph is “While we had hoped to create a bold and buzzworthy launch campaign, we missed the mark.”)

To the team’s credit, that is an actual apology rather than a “Sorry if you were offended.” And there has been course correction here with removing the shirt and the website redirect.

But it is remarkable to see a launch planned for this long — the expansion team was announced in September 2023 — go this spectacularly wrong. It’s an advertising misstep for the ages. Cheeky campaigns can sometimes work, even with balls (see the CFL’s 1990s “ Our Balls Are Bigger “), but this one was certainly a misstep. And it will be interesting to see how BOS Nation FC tries to rebound from it.

[ The Athletic ; image from BOS Nation FC on X ]

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