Arizona's getting a new women’s soccer team. What should it be called?

The Arizona Women’s Soccer Club will play in the Women’s Professional Soccer League next year. The team wants name ideas.

By Zach Buchanan

December 13, 2024

The new Arizona Women's Soccer Club is taking name suggestions on its website. Arizona Women's Soccer Club

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Women's soccer is coming to the Valley in 2025.

On Friday, the Women's Professional Soccer League announced it had awarded an expansion franchise to Arizona that will begin playing next year. The team, temporarily dubbed the Arizona Women's Soccer Club, will play at Peoria Sports Complex, where the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres conduct spring training. The soccer season will begin after Cactus League baseball has ended.

Founded in 1998, the WPSL is the longest-running women's soccer league in the country. It's an amateur league — though an offshoot pro league, WPSL Pro, is in the process of gearing up — and currently comprises 25 teams spanning from California to Florida. WPSL players have gone on to play in the more prominent (and professional) National Women's Soccer League.

According to the team's announcement, the Phoenix area is the third-largest market in the U.S. without a major-league women's soccer team. "This creates a tangible void related to women’s sports opportunities in the state — one which Arizona Women’s Soccer Club is excited to play a role in helping to solve in the years ahead," the team said in a news release.

There are five other WPSL clubs — Arizona Arsenal Soccer Club (Mesa), FC Tucson, Royals AZ (Scottsdale), RSL Southern Arizona (Tucson) and SC del Sol (Phoenix).

But don't get that name tattooed on your arm just yet. The team will rebrand itself before it plays, and it's seeking suggestions on how to do so. Prospective fans can submit name ideas on the team website, which can either be in the traditional soccer mold like Manchester United or be more mascot-based, such as the Phoenix Suns.

The club said it will provide updates on the name selection process and hopes to unveil its final name and logo in early 2025.

Zach Buchanan has been the news editor for the Phoenix New Times since April 2024. He's worked as a journalist in Phoenix for more than a decade, and is an alum of both The Athletic and the Arizona Republic. He's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and has taught as an associate professor at ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

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