New NWSL team reveals name — Bay FC — logo, colors
The new National Women's Soccer League team in the San Francisco Bay Area will be called Bay Football Club, or Bay FC for short.
The team's name, logo and colors — navy, poppy red and fog gray — were unveiled Thursday. Bay FC is set to join the NWSL as the league's 14th team in 2024.
The team expects to announce where it will train temporarily in the coming months, with plans to build a permanent practice facility in the future.
“One of the things that we contemplated throughout this whole process was we wanted to be for the whole big area — we didn't want to be just for the North Bay, we didn't want to be just for the East Bay or the South Bay,” said Aly Wagner, co-chair of Bay FC. “There are incredible, incredible places in the Bay Area that make this one of the most special places in the world.”
Wagner is a founding partner of the team along with fellow former U.S. team players Brandi Chastain, Danielle Slaton and Leslie Osborne.
Bay FC's logo incorporates a stylized depiction of a bridge with the letter B.
San Francisco-based investment firm Sixth Street is Bay FC's majority backer with an investment of $125million. The firm has also invested in soccer clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as the NBA's San Antonio Spurs.
Sixth Street CEO Alan Waxman will serve on the NWSL's board of governors. Others on the franchise's board include Sheryl Sandberg, a former Facebook executive, Rick Welts, former Golden State Warriors president, and Staci Slaughter, former vice president for communications for the San Francisco Giants.
The NWSL is in the midst of it 11th season with 12 teams. Angel City in Los Angeles and the San Diego
Wave joined the league last year. Last month, the league announced the return of the Utah Royals, who will also start play in 2024.
The league is expected to add a 15th team in the Boston area in the future.
• Lionel Messi will leave Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season after two years at the club, coach Christophe Galtier said.
Galter said ahead of PSG's game against Clermont on Saturday that it would be Messi's last match at the Parc des Princes. Messi's contract expires at the end of June.
“I had the privilege of coaching the best player in the history of soccer,” Galtier said. “This will be his last match at the Parc des Princes, and I hope that he will receive the warmest of welcomes.”
PSG recruited Messi in August 2021 with the ambition to finally win the Champions League. The team is still waiting.
Although PSG won its 11th French league title this year, it again exited Europe's top tournament in the round of
16.
Messi's adventure in France has been bittersweet. In spite of pretty good statistics, he has been embodying the team's shortcomings in the view of many PSG fans who have repeatedly whistled and booed his name in recent weeks.
After struggling to adapt to the French league — the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner scored only six league goals in his first 26 games — Messi has improved this season as he developed an efficient understanding with forward Kylian Mbappe.
In 31 league matches, Messi, 35, has scored 16 goals and delivered as many assists. In all competitions, Messi netted 21 goals and had 20 assists for PSG.
• Anderson Duarte's strike from the edge of the penalty area put Uruguay through to the Under-20 World Cup quarterfinals with a 1-0 win against Gambia in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Uruguay plays the United States in the last eight on Sunday.
Morant sanctions to come after Finals
The latest sanctions, if any, that the NBA plans to levy against Memphis guard Ja Morant for his second instance of displaying a gun on social media will be announced shortly after the NBA Finals, Commissioner Adam Silver said.
Silver did not say what the penalties were, not even saying if Morant would be available at the start of next season. Morant was suspended for eight games by the NBA in March for an incident where he broadcast himself on Instagram displaying a gun in a suburban Denver club, and was suspended by the Grizzlies last month after another video showed Morant displaying what appeared to be a gun yet again.
Silver said the league has discovered more information during its current investigation, but the decision was made to not have the next round of Morant news overshadow the NBA Finals.
“We probably could have brought it to a head now, but we made the decision — and I believe the players' association agrees with us — that it would be unfair to these players and these teams, in the middle of this series, to announce the results of that investigation,” Silver said.
The first suspension cost Morant about $669,000 in salary. The second incident was streamed on the Instagram account of Morant associate Davonte Pack. The video shows Morant in the passenger seat of a vehicle, briefly appearing to display a handgun. At the very brief moment — maybe less than a second — when Morant is shown holding what appears to be a weapon, the livestream had 111 viewers.
Kane has hip surgery
Patrick Kane underwent hip resurfacing surgery and is expected to miss 4-6 months. The extended absence appears to rule out Kane for an NHL training camp but means he may be able to return early in the regular season.
Kane, 34, has been dealing with a nagging hip injury that hampered him over the past year with the Chicago Blackhawks and then down the stretch and in the playoffs with the New York Rangers.
Agent Pat Brisson expects Kane to make a full recovery. It was not immediately clear how the surgery impacts Kane's impending free agency, though Brisson said they'd consider options if the prolific winger does not have a contract on July 1.
The priority, Brisson said, is that the surgery was successful. He told Sportsnet, which first reported the operation, that Kane wants to keep playing for a long time.
Kane might get that chance if the surgery allows him to return to his previous form. Second only to Mike Modano in scoring among U.S.-born players with 1,237 points, Kane was one of the centerpieces of Chicago's Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2010, '13 and '15 and won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 2016.
As recently as the 2021-22 season, Kane was more than a point-a-game player even amid the Blackhawks' struggles, putting up 26 goals and 66 assists in 78 games.
Kane had six points on a goal and five assists in New York's seven-game firstround series loss to New Jersey after the Rangers acquired him before the trade deadline.
The Buffalo, N.Y., native joins Washington's Nicklas Backstrom and Carl Hagelin as players to have the invasive hip surgery over the past year. It involves dislocating the upper end of the thighbone, trimming it, capping it and removing cartilage before putting it back in place.
Backstrom, who also was seeking to fix a lingering hip ailment, played seven months after the surgery and finished the season with 21 points in 39 games. Before Backstrom, the only NHL player to come back from hip resurfacing surgery was Ed Jovanovski, who got into 37 more games before retiring.
• Kyle Dubas didn't stay out of work for long. The Pittsburgh Penguins named Dubas as the club's president of hockey operations. The move comes less than two weeks after Dubas was fired as the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dubas replaces Brian
Burke, who was fired along with general manager Ron Hextall in April after the Penguins failed to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2006.
• Hilary Knight was the runaway leader in voting for the International Ice Hockey Federation's first female player of the year award, some six weeks after she captained the United States to win gold at the women's world championship.
The IIHF announced Knight received 40.9% of the votes submitted by more than 50 media members, representing 16 countries, and a select group of federation officials. U.S. defender Caroline Harvey was second at 18.2%, followed by Slovakia's 15-year-old Nela Lopusanova (13.6%).
The IIHF is also introducing a male player of the year award, with the winner announced later this month.
Knight scored a tournament-leading eight goals, with three — including the game-winner — coming in a 6-3 win over Canada in the championship game in April. And she did so as a first-time team captain, filling in for Kendall Coyne Schofield, who missed the tournament because of pregnancy.
In 13 tournament appearances, Knight leads all world championship players with 61 career goals and 101 career points.
The gold was the United States' 10th, and first since 2019, and ninth for Knight to tie the individual career record held by Canada's Danielle Goyette.
Bills add tackle Shell
The Buffalo Bills added veteran depth to their offensive line by signing Brandon Shell to a one-year contract.
Shell is listed at 6-foot-5 and 324 pounds and has seven years of NFL experience, starting 11 games for Miami last season after being promoted off the Dolphins' practice squad.