It looks like the Bay Area will soon some new NISA representation after the Oakland Roots departed for the USL Championship last year.
Bay Cities FC has announced that they have formally signed a letter of intent to join the third-tier professional league and will kick off in 2022 according to the team’s website.
Furthermore, the club made mention that regional games could kickoff this summer after operations officially commence in late spring with possible involvement in a NISA sanctioned tournament over the summer.
Founded by Anders Perez, the executive director of the Juventus FC Academy Project in Northern California, the club will have their home matches at the 3,500-seat stadium on the campus of Sequoia High School in downtown Redwood City and apparently committed to also fielding a women’s team. However, unlike the men’s side, it’s unclear when the women’s team will be established and what league they would play in.
In any sense, NISA securing a new club for the Bay Area isn’t surprising as there had been plenty of speculation over the past few months that expansion in this particular area was likely. NISA commissioner John Prutch also reiterated leading up to the Legends Cup that there would be some announcements in the coming weeks in terms of new teams joining the league.
Now despite NISA not formally announcing Bay Cities FC as the newest club to join the league, the would certainly fall in line with the league’s desire to expand on their footprint out west to go with the three other California teams in the LA Force, California United Strikers FC, and 1904 FC out of San Diego.
Other than that, it would seem like NISA confirming Bay Cities FC is all but a formality at this point.
UPDATE: NISA has now tweeted Bay Cities FC’s intent to join the League.