The reigning NWSL champions are on the move just three months after capturing the title. Per FourFourTwo, the Western New York Flash have been sold to the owners of North Carolina FC (formerly Carolina Railhawks) and will likely be rebranded as the Carolina Courage.
Western New York Flash sold, will move to North Carolina
The Flash have been purchased by the owners of North Carolina FC and will likely be rebranded as the Carolina Courage.
Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images
You may remember that there was a Carolina Courage in Women’s United Soccer Association, the first pro women’s soccer league in the United States. The Courage featured multiple USWNT stars and won the WUSA title in 2002, but had the second-worst average attendance across all seasons when the league shuttered.
Carolina FC LLC filed a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the name “Carolina Courage” on Sept. 8, 2016, as well as “North Carolina Courage” and “NC Courage” on Sept. 23, indicating this move was on their minds for a while.
Prominent names in women’s soccer like UNC head coach Anson Dorrance and former USWNT player Heather O’Reilly have also hinted at the move. Dorrance gave a quote in December about working to bring an NWSL team to Cary, N.C., while O’Reilly retweeted this from North Carolina FC:
Most people expected North Carolina would be part of expansion efforts in 2018, but it looks like they want to jump feet-first into the league for 2017 with this acquisition.
One question for NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush is how the league plans to handle North Carolina’s HB2 bill. As of Friday, the league had no comment.
HB2 is a bill that discriminates against transgender people by requiring them to use public bathrooms that match the sex on their birth certificate, regardless of presentation or gender identity. An attempt to repeal the bill recently failed. The NBA and the NCAA have already moved events from North Carolina in response to the bill.
The Flash were founded in 2008 and have won titles in four different leagues, but have failed to grow attendance from NWSL’s inaugural season in 2013. This could end up being a fantastic move for the Flash, as they enter a market with high youth participation in soccer, popular college programs, and big population growth. It could also signal that the league itself is ready for its smaller teams like the Flash or Sky Blue FC to accelerate their growth as they enter their fifth season.
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