A year in women’s sports: Looking back at 2024′s unprecedented surge in Boston and across New England

Though only one Boston-based professional women’s team was in action this season, it was a busy year for women’s sports in New England — and it’s only getting busier.

PWHL Boston — rebranded the Boston Fleet in September — came agonizingly close to winning the inaugural Walter Cup. The Connecticut Sun sold out TD Garden in the first WNBA game played in Boston, then extended their league-best playoff streak. Boston’s NWSL team, which is set to begin play in 2026, announced its new name, spurring public outcry. And the new Women’s Lacrosse League announced Boston as one of its founding cities.

Let’s take a look back at this year in women’s sports.

Boston Fleet

The Professional Women’s Hockey League hit the ground running, dropping the puck on its inaugural season on New Year’s Day — just five months after the league and its six teams were announced.

Boston got off to a slow start, but racked up wins after the international break and snuck into the four-team playoffs on the final day of the regular season. Boston swept Montreal in three overtime contests in the first round, then forced the Walter Cup Finals to a decisive Game 5 at Lowell’s Tsongas Center, which Minnesota won, 3-0.

All six teams underwent rebranding in the offseason, getting names, colors, logos, and uniforms. The Boston team was dubbed the Fleet, keeping its dark green sweaters and adding navy blue and teal accents. The new logo, a ‘B’ designed to look like a fish hook, is reminiscent of the late Hartford Whalers and a nod to Boston’s maritime tradition.

With more games on the schedule this season — and some scheduled at NHL arenas in new cities as part of a Takeover Tour — the young league is still working to grow awareness. Total attendance through 102 PWHL games was 589,303, or an average of 5,777 per game. Through the first 17 games of this season, the average is 6,221.

The Fleet were again slow out of the gates, and sit last in the league at 2-0-0-3 after losing, 4-2, in Toronto on Friday.

BOS Nation FC

In October, billboards declaring “There are too many balls in this town” began to crop up around the Boston area. Boston’s new NWSL team — awarded by the league in September 2023 — was behind the campaign, which was meant to build anticipation for the release of its name: BOS Nation FC.

It’s an anagram of Bostonian, the team noted, and “a title worn proudly by millions across 23 neighborhoods and 48.4 square miles.”

The campaign backfired, as fans were not in favor of the name or the branding. The billboards swiftly disappeared, and in November, the team announced it would go back to the drawing board on the name — it did not, however guarantee a change. For now, BOS Nation FC remains in limbo.

The team introduced Domènec Guasch as its first general manager earlier this month, then just before Christmas signed a 10-year lease with the City of Boston for the use of White Stadium in Franklin Park following an extension renovation/buildout. Demolition and construction are set to being in January, just 14 months before the inaugural season is to begin, with a lawsuit from residents and park stewards hanging over the project.

Boston Globe CEO Linda Henry has a small, noncontrolling ownership stake in the team.

Connecticut Sun

Could the WNBA expand to Boston? Unlikely, but the Sun want to be New England’s team. They’re making a convincing case.

TD Garden hosted the Sun and the Los Angeles Sparks for the venue’s first-ever WNBA game in August, and the Sun walked off with a 69-61 victory before a sellout crowd of 19,125. The league announced a sequel for July 2025, when the Sun will welcome the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever to Causeway Street.

The Sun finished the 2024 season 28-12, setting a franchise wins record and extending the league’s longest active playoff streak to eight years. Connecticut ousted the Fever in the first round, then pushed the second round to five games before falling to Minnesota.

In November, the Sun parted ways with head coach Stephanie White — who promptly took over Clark’s Fever — and replaced her with Belgium national team coach Rachid Meziane.

Boston Guard

With former Boston College star Charlotte North as one of the league’s four faces, the men’s Professional Lacrosse League in November announced the creation of the new Women’s Lacrosse League, which is set to begin a barnstroming schedule in February.

The Boston Guard, captained by North, will be one of the four inaugural members alongside the California Palms, the Maryland Charm, and the New York Charging. The WLL will debut at the PLL’s annual 6-on-6 event, the PLL Championship Series, in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 11-17.

LPGA

After a two-decade absence from the Boston sports landscape, women’s professional golf returned to the region in 2024 when the LPGA held the first FM Championship at TPC Boston over Labor Day weekend. More than 25,000 fans visited the event, and news emerged during the tournament that it would return in 2025.

Haeran Ryu waited out a two-hour rain delay in the final round and won on the first sudden-death playoff hole. It was the second career LPGA win for Ryu, who won $575,000.