The Chicago Red Stars moniker joins the list of legends retiring this season.
On Wednesday morning, the club announced their new name, Chicago Stars FC, with an updated logo that “will continue to honor Chicago with iconic elements, most notably, the red star at the heart of the crest.
The team rebrand has been a gradual work in progress. The team’s jersey crest was slightly updated ahead of the 2024 season to feature a single red star in a minimalist shield design.
“It was something that Laura had been thinking about when she originally purchased the Red Stars about a year ago.” Chicago’s chief marketing officer Kay Bradley said in an interview with The Athletic.
The process was a six-month undertaking in collaboration with players and the Local 134 supporter’s group.
One of the club’s goals this season has to increase brand awareness in a city flush with sports history. As Bradley says in her interview with the Athletic, “Often people shorten our name to ‘Red Stars’, and then the ‘Chicago’ goes away. So by removing ‘Red’ from the name, the short version will be ‘Chicago Stars’, so that we keep that connection with our city.”
“There’s so many people in our city who do not know who we are and what we do.” Red Stars President Karen Leetzow told Gal Pal Sports in an interview earlier this season.
As longtime Chicago soccer reporter Sandra Herrera noted on X, the average Chicagoan just doesn’t know the Red Stars are a pro women’s soccer team.
Reception to the new name has been mixed, though the timing of the announcement may play a role. The Chicago rebrand comes on the heels of the disastrous Bos Nation FC launch.
The news of a rebrand often comes earlier in the season, but as a source familiar with the launch tells Gal Pal Sports, the team needed to work with Nike’s production schedule for next season.
With a new ownership group in charge, and a new team on the field, it’s not unusual to see a rebrand take place. For longtime fans of the NWSL and the Chicago Red Stars, it’s another farewell in a season full of legendary exits.
The Red Stars will continue to wear their traditional logo through the end of the 2024 season, but expect to see a new look when the team takes the field next season.