Latest news with #MatthewWolff
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Pro. Women's Soccer Team in Mass. Reveals New Club Brand
A new era of professional women's soccer continues to take shape in Massachusetts as the Boston Legacy Football Club unveiled the club brand this weekend. After a five-month design process led by graphic designer Matthew Wolff, the team revealed its new black, white, and green-colored crest to the public Saturday through an interactive event for fans on the Boston Common. The crest consists of a green shield, a white, stylized swan, and the word 'Boston' in black letters. Advertisement Boston Legacy FC Controlling Manager Jennifer Epstein said the swan, as the central symbol of the crest, seemed 'very appropriate to represent the values of our club, which are inclusivity, belonging, grit, and style.' The swan has eight feathers, the total number of teams that originally played in the National Women's Soccer League, including the Boston Breakers, which played its final soccer matches in 2017. The angle of the feathers is also a nod to the cables on the Leonard Zakim Bridge, an iconic piece of infrastructure in Boston. 'The crest in my mind is really the link between the city, and the fans, and the athletes,' said Stephanie Connaughton, one of Boston Legacy's co-founders and managing owners. The founders told Boston 25 News that it's now up to the fans to infuse meaning into the crest as a new generation of female athletes shines in the Bay State. Advertisement 'It is a new era in women's sports. You can see the excitement, the passion all across our country, and really, the world,' said Epstein. 'We are going to make sure that we are going to bring championships home to our fans,' said Ami Kuan Danoff, one of the club's founding partners. The Boston Legacy FC will start playing in the National Women's Soccer League in 2026. Home games will be played at Gillette Stadium for the first year, but by 2027, games will be played at the new White Stadium. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Boston Legacy FC unveils new team crest: ‘It's been a learning process. We had a hiccup'
Boston Legacy FC has learned a crucial lesson before even setting foot on the field or signing a player: It's OK to try again. 'It's been a learning process and we had a hiccup when we launched the first pieces of our brand, as you know and everyone else knows,' owner and controlling manager Jennifer Epstein told on Friday. Advertisement While 'hiccup' might be an understatement of how the first attempt at a brand launch went for the 15th NWSL club, between the original name of BOS Nation FC and the 'Too Many Balls' campaign, everyone in Boston gave themselves time and space not just to own it and learn, but to move on. In March, the team announced its new name. When it came time to think through the launch of the first crest and brand, the club took its time. Set to begin play next year, Boston Legacy FC is ready to spread its wings, completing a five-month design process following the team's decision to rebrand. As part of that, Legacy FC hired experienced designer Matthew Wolff to lead the specific project of the new crest, with the team name already announced and the colors dating back to the team's original launch last year. The club sought an expert they could trust — enter Wolff, a known designer in the soccer world — and enlisted brand advisors in addition to their own input to ensure they had a range of viewpoints for their second attempt. Advertisement 'Opening it up to a plurality of perspectives and voices really helped us drill down and do something that we think is beautiful, but also mixes older and newer and is the perfect symbol for this new legacy that we are building here in Boston,' Epstein said. Rather than using the entire team name, the crest simply says Boston. The team will celebrate the new identity with a party on Boston Common on Saturday. Wolff is no stranger to stepping into a project where a course correction is needed. His first NWSL project was in 2020 with Racing Louisville FC, following their original launch as Proof Louisville FC. Since then, he has also worked with Gotham FC and the San Diego Wave. 'Intentionality matters,' Wolff told before getting into what he has learned from his work across the league over the past five years. 'Women's soccer fans really care about the way that their clubs look, the way that their clubs feel, what their clubs represent. There's a high standard, and there should be a high standard for this.' Advertisement As a designer, Wolff is a proponent of the idea that a club's crest and visual identity directly contribute to the growth of the game. As for the crest itself, it wasn't always a given that the swan would be the centerpiece of the design. The idea kept coming up in conversations, though, according to Wolff, and they realized it was strong enough to build the entire identity around. 'Swans have a long history in the city of Boston. They're iconic birds that populate the Charles and Mystic (rivers). Of course, they reside in the Boston Public Garden, which is in the Emerald Necklace, which extends through to where our home pitch will be at White Stadium,' Epstein said. And looking at the rest of the crests across the league, while the Washington Spirit have a nod to the eagle in theirs, a bird would stand out from the rest. 'Swans are extraordinarily fierce and extraordinarily loyal. Doesn't that sound like a Bostonian to you?' Wolff asked. 'Swans are elegant and fierce and loyal. That's Boston, that's Boston sports. Early on, we realised there was some mirroring of the animal and the club's values and Bostonians' personalities. The triangulation of those three things made it feel like the right move for the center of the crest.' Advertisement The team's explainer also makes a nod to 'Romeo and Juliet,' a pair of swans that summered in the Boston Public Garden for years. Both swans were female. It's a fun aside that should be popular with supporters, even if it wasn't directly an influence on the design itself. Once the swan was set, there were the smaller details to fine-tune. Each feather represents one of the original eight teams of the NWSL from its launch in 2013. The Boston Breakers, the previous NWSL team in the city until 2018, were always alphabetically at the top of that list. 'The Breakers obviously are a really important part of Boston soccer, Boston sports, women's sports, women's soccer history,' Wolff said. The initial design brief always had a nod to them in some way, listed as one of the priorities. The angle of the feathers is also a nod to the Zakim Bridge, which crosses the Charles River into the North End of Boston and was also featured on Boston's interim crest used in the early days of the expansion team. Advertisement 'When I'm working on a football crest, I want to represent the football club and the women who are going to compete on the pitch,' Wolff said. 'But of equal, if not more, importance, is representing the entire city, the entire community — so a powerful football crest can really draw people that maybe weren't originally interested in the sport to the sport.' If done right, said Wolff, a crest represents the player, the club, the local, the fan, but their family too, their neighbors, the community itself. There was no ignoring the power of sports in Boston on this project, something Wolff said he thought about frequently at a time when we gather as communities less and less. Yes, there is brand power in using Boston rather than Legacy FC — an instant shortcut to the city's culture as a whole, but it also seems to be one half of a promise from the club. The critical work right now, Epstein said, is building the relationships and trust with the community of Boston and the greater area. 'This is just the beginning. We want to see that long-term pride and loyalty from our fans in the city as a whole, in what we are building. It's always at the core of what we are doing — thinking about the community and how we can bring them in.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Soccer, NWSL, Sports Business 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Boston Legacy FC unveils team crest featuring an eight-feathered swan
'This crest is the culmination of a five-month design process, led by renowned graphic designer Matthew Wolff,' the club said in a statement. Per the announcement, the eight feathers of the swan 'represent the eight original NWSL teams, including the Boston Breakers, and are angled to reflect the lines of the iconic Zakim Bridge.' 'This crest is another step in building a new sporting legacy in Boston,' said controlling owner Jennifer Epstein. 'Swans encompass our core club values of integrity, grit, and style. They are famously loyal, relentless in defending their territory, and iconic residents of our waterways and green spaces. We are excited to see our fans and players wearing this incredible crest when we kick off in 2026 at Gillette Stadium, and continue to build towards the future with our home field of White Stadium in partnership with the City of Boston.' Related : Advertisement The team pivoted in early 2025 to 'Legacy FC' after the initial brand launch in October 2024 under the name 'BOS Nation FC' was In response, Advertisement With a team name, crest, and home venue established ahead of the inaugural season, attention will begin to turn toward building an expansion roster. The team already has appointed its general manager, former Barcelona executive Hayden Bird can be reached at
New York Times
a day ago
- Business
- New York Times
Boston Legacy FC unveils new team crest: ‘It's been a learning process. We had a hiccup'
Boston Legacy FC has learned a crucial lesson before even setting foot on the field or signing a player: it's OK to try again. 'It's been a learning process and we had a hiccup when we launched the first pieces of our brand, as you know, and everyone else knows,' owner and controlling manager Jennifer Epstein told The Athletic on Friday. Advertisement While 'hiccup' might be an understatement of how the first attempt at a brand launch went for the 15th NWSL club, between the original name of BOS Nation FC and the 'Too Many Balls' campaign, everyone in Boston gave themselves time and space not just to own it and learn, but to move on. In March, the team announced its new name. When it came time to think through the launch of their first crest and brand, the club took its time. Set to begin play next year, Boston Legacy FC is ready to spread its wings, completing a five-month design process following the team's decision to rebrand. As part of that, Legacy FC hired experienced designer Matthew Wolff to lead the specific project of the new crest, with the team name already announced and the colors dating back to the team's original launch last year. The club sought an expert they could trust — enter Wolff, a known designer in the soccer world — and enlisted brand advisors in addition to their own input to ensure they had a range of viewpoints for their second attempt. 'Opening it up to a plurality of perspectives and voices really helped us drill down and do something that we think is beautiful, but also mixes older and newer and is the perfect symbol for this new legacy that we are building here in Boston,' Epstein said. Rather than using the entire team name, the crest simply says Boston. The team will celebrate the new identity with a party on Boston Common on Saturday. Wolff is no stranger to stepping into a project where a course correction is needed. His first NWSL project was in 2020 with Racing Louisville FC, following their original launch as Proof Louisville FC. Since then, he's also worked with Gotham FC and the San Diego Wave. 'Intentionality matters,' Wolff told The Athletic before getting into what he's learned from his work across the league over the past five years. 'Women's soccer fans really care about the way that their clubs look, the way that their clubs feel, what their clubs represent. There's a high standard, and there should be a high standard for this.' Advertisement As a designer, Wolff is a proponent of the idea that a club's crest and visual identity directly contribute to the growth of the game. As for the crest itself, it wasn't always a given that the swan would be the centerpiece of the design. The idea kept coming up in conversations, though, according to Wolff, and they realized it was strong enough to build the entire identity around. 'Swans have a long history in the city of Boston. They're iconic birds that populate the Charles and Mystic (rivers). Of course, they reside in the Boston Public Garden, which is in the Emerald Necklace, which extends through to where our home pitch will be at White Stadium,' Epstein said. And looking at the rest of the crests across the league, while the Washington Spirit have a nod to the eagle in theirs, a bird would stand out from the rest. 'Swans are extraordinarily fierce and extraordinarily loyal. Doesn't that sound like a Bostonian to you?' Wolff asked. 'Swans are elegant and fierce and loyal. To me, that's Boston, that's Boston sports. Early on, we realised there was some mirroring of the animal and the club's values and Bostonians' personalities. The triangulation of those three things made it feel like the right move for the center of the crest.' The team's explainer also makes a nod to 'Romeo and Juliet,' a pair of swans that summered in the Boston Public Garden for years. Both swans were female. It's a fun aside that should be popular with supporters, even if it wasn't directly an influence on the design itself. Once the swan was set, there were the smaller details to fine-tune. Each feather represents one of the original eight teams of the NWSL from its launch in 2013. The Boston Breakers were always alphabetically at the top of that list. 'The Breakers obviously are a really important part of Boston soccer, Boston sports, women's sports, women's soccer history,' Wolff said. The initial design brief always had a nod to them in some way, listed as one of the priorities. The angle of the feathers is also a nod to the Zakim Bridge, which crosses the Charles River into the North End of Boston and which was also featured on Boston's interim crest used in the early days of the expansion team. Advertisement 'When I'm working on a football crest, I want to represent the football club and the women who are going to compete on the pitch,' Wolff said. 'But of equal, if not more importance, is representing the entire city, the entire community — so I believe that a powerful football crest can really draw people that maybe weren't originally interested in the sport to the sport.' If done right, said Wolff, a crest represents the player, the club, the local, the fan, but their family too, their neighbors, the community itself. There was no ignoring the power of sports in Boston on this project, something Wolff said he thought about frequently at a time when we gather as communities less and less. Yes, there is brand power in using Boston rather than Legacy FC — an instant shortcut to the city's culture as a whole, but it also seems to be one half of a promise from the club. The critical work right now, Epstein said, is building the relationships and trust with the community of Boston and the greater area. 'This is just the beginning. We want to see that long-term pride and loyalty from our fans in the city as a whole, in what we are building. It's always at the core of what we are doing — thinking about the community and how we can bring them in.' (Top Photo: Boston Legacy FC)
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
LIV Golf Announces $22 Million Golfer Abruptly Withdraws at Virginia
LIV Golf Announces $22 Million Golfer Abruptly Withdraws at Virginia originally appeared on Athlon Sports. LIV Golf has shaken up the traditional golf scene by introducing a unique team-based format alongside its competition. Unlike the PGA Tour, where players compete solely for individual glory, LIV Golf crowns both an individual champion each week and a winning team. Each four-player squad works together to rack up points, with every stroke affecting the team leaderboard as much as the individual standings. Advertisement One of LIV Golf's youngest and most electrifying talents, Matthew Wolff, was set to tee off for Range Goats GC at LIV Golf Virginia, but his tournament ended abruptly on Wednesday. Shortly after his tee shot at the par-4 eighth, Wolff grimaced, pulled up, and withdrew with an apparent muscle strain. Miami, Florida, USA; Matthew Wolff of the RangeGoats thanks the crowd after a birdie putt on the seventh green during the final round of LIV Golf Miami golf tournament at Trump National Matay-Imagn Images His departure came as a shock, Wolff, a $22 million career earner already turning heads. Most of his earnings are from LIV Golf, yet PGA too has a contribution in it. "Matthew Wolff WD (injury) after his 8th Ollie Schniederjans joins field, will play remainder of Rd. 1 in place of Wolff," LIV Golf wrote on X. Advertisement Fellow Range Goats member Ollie Schniederjans—who had been on standby—stepped in to finish the round. While Ollie's score over the final ten holes counts toward the Range Goats' team total, it won't affect his individual ranking this week. Wolff's résumé is impressive: he drained the winning putt to capture the 2018 NCAA Division I Championship for Oklahoma State, aced a hole-in-one at LIV Golf Boston in 2022, and won the 3M Open in just his third PGA Tour start in 2019. He also notched two top-5 finishes in his first major appearances and led the U.S. Open after 54 holes in 2020—the youngest ever to do so. Although his individual campaign at LIV Golf Virginia was cut short, Wolff's presence still looms large. As his teammates rally to keep Range Goats in contention, fans everywhere will be watching to see when the young phenom bolts back into action—ideally pain-free and firing on all cylinders. Advertisement Related: Last-Minute Addition Leads PGA Tour's RBC Canadian Open This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
