Sports in Boston
Boston, Massachusetts, is home to several major professional sports franchises. They include the Red Sox, the Celtics, and the Bruins. The New England Patriots and the New England Revolution play at Gillette Stadium in the nearby suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts. Boston is one of eleven U.S. cities to have teams from the five major American professional team sports.
Several Boston-area colleges and universities are also active in college athletics including: Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard. The city is also home to prestigious sports events such as the Boston Marathon and the Head of the Charles Regatta.
Sports are a major part of the city's culture. Boston sports fans are known for their fanatical devotion to the Red Sox and knowledge of the team's history. However, in recent memory Boston is now known as an American football town, as the Patriots have long seized the title as the most popular team in New England, according to surveys. Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball and holds a legendary status among baseball fans. Within the same era, what is now the world's oldest existing indoor multi-sports facility – today's Matthews Arena, primarily used by Northeastern University's college sports teams – first opened in 1910, only -mile away from the original home field of the Red Sox – and is where on December 1, 1924, the Boston Bruins played their first NHL regular season game.
The Greater Boston region is the only city/surrounding area in American professional sports in which all facilities for men's teams are privately owned and operated. The Patriots and Revolution both own Gillette Stadium, the Red Sox own Fenway Park, and TD Garden is owned by Delaware North, owner of the Bruins. The Celtics rent TD Garden from Delaware North. This is not the case for teams in the most prominent women's leagues—Boston Fleet, the region's representative in the Professional Women's Hockey League, plays at the Tsongas Center, owned by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the National Women's Soccer League's future Boston Legacy FC is set to start play in 2026 in White Stadium, owned by Boston's public school district.
Major league professional teams
Current teams
Former teams
Major league professional championships
Boston Red Sox (MLB)
9 World Series titles- 1903
- 1912
- 1915
- 1916
- 1918
- 2004
- 2007
- 2013
- 2018
Boston Braves (MLB)
- 1914
New England Patriots (NFL)
- 2001
- 2003
- 2004
- 2014
- 2016
- 2018
Boston Celtics (NBA)
- 1957
- 1959
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- 1963
- 1964
- 1965
- 1966
- 1968
- 1969
- 1974
- 1976
- 1981
- 1984
- 1986
- 2008
- 2024
Boston Bruins (NHL)
- 1929
- 1939
- 1941
- 1970
- 1972
- 2011
New England Whalers (WHA)
- 1973
21st century success
In the 2000s, Boston's professional teams had what was argued to be the most successful decade in sports history, winning six championships, while also appearing an additional five times as league finalists. Additionally, their teams have completed their regular seasons with the best record five times in their respective leagues.
In the 2010s, their professional teams rivaled their 2000s achievements, winning six additional championships, while also appearing an additional six times as league finalists. Additionally, their teams have completed their regular seasons with the best record four times in their respective leagues.
In the 2020s, the Celtics won a championship in 2024, while also appearing an additional time as a league finalist in 2022. Additionally, Boston's professional teams have completed their regular seasons with the best record four times in their respective leagues.
When the Bruins won the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, the city of Boston became the first city in the 21st century to have at least four of its major professional league teams win a league championship, and became the first city to have championships in four major professional leagues within a ten-year span, accomplishing this feat in a span of six years, four months, and nine days. Los Angeles would accomplish this same feat in 2022. This sporting achievement was what Dan Shaughnessy of Sports Illustrated dubbed as Boston completing the "Grand Slam of North American sports."
As of April 2025, at least one of Boston's five major pro sports teams has played in the final four of their respective sports playoffs, MLB's ALCS, NFL's AFC Championship Game, or the Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA, NHL, and MLS in every year since 2010.
Since 2002, duck boats provided by Boston Duck Tours have been used as Boston's championship parade vehicles, starting with the New England Patriots after the Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI over the St. Louis Rams. As a result of this recent practice, the catch phrase "cue the duck boats" has been used whenever a Boston sports team has won a championship in advance of its celebratory parade. While much of the parade routes over the years consisted of the duck boats staying on land, some featured them traversing both the land and across the Charles River.
Soccer
According to American folklore, Pilgrim fathers observed a form of soccer called pasuckuakohowog that was played by Native Americans along the Massachusetts coast as early as 1620, the earliest observance of soccer of any form in what is currently the United States.In 1862, The Oneida Football Club in Boston was the first organized team to play any kind of "football/soccer" in the United States. It was founded by Gerrit Smith "Gat" Miller, a graduate of the Latin School of Epes Sargent Dixwell, a private college preparatory school in Boston, who grew tired of the chaotic, disorganized, and very violent games that arose from different schools, as well as the rule variations of soccer that existed as a by-product of no formal rules for the game during that era. Miller organized other recent preparatory school graduates from relatively elite public schools in the area, such as Boston Latin School and the English High School of Boston to join this team that played their games at Boston Common. Between 1862 and 1865, playing against other pickup teams within Boston's collegiate community, the Oneidas never lost a match. Like American football historians, soccer historians trace the origins of their sport in the region to the Oneida Football Club and their brand of football that they played called the "Boston Game", which was a hybrid of both sports today that featured a rounded ball that could be kicked, carried, and thrown. The Boston game would go on to be introduced to Yale University, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Boston's Harvard University. This hybrid form of football, that would evolve into what is now American football, would eventually adopt codified rules based primarily on those established for English rugby, gained prominence and acceptance within the college circles, and upper-class status, relegating the uncodified "soccer" variety of the game to working-class status, that was adopted by the immigrant communities that brought along their soccer customs and traditions with them to the region.
In 1923, the world's first indoor soccer league with 11-a-side teams on a full-sized field opened the winter season at the Commonwealth Cavalry Armory in Boston.
In 1924, the Boston Soccer Club was formed and played in the professional American Soccer League, which comprised teams based in the northeastern U.S. region. The team was later renamed the Boston Bears in 1929 and played for an additional few seasons before the league folded in 1933 due to the Great Depression in the United States.
At the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930, Bert Patenaude scored the first hat-trick in World Cup play. The USMNT finished in third place.
1967 brought about the birth of nationwide professional soccer featuring two competing leagues. Of the two, Boston only played in the United Soccer Association and was represented by the Boston Rovers, whose roster was composed of players from Shamrock Rovers F.C. from the League of Ireland as well as guest players. They played their home matches at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Massachusetts. In 1968, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League merged to become the FIFA-backed, major professional North American Soccer League. Boston was represented that year by the Boston Beacons who played their lone season at Fenway Park. In 1974–76, Boston was represented in the league by the Boston Minutemen who played their home games in various stadiums within Greater Boston, including Nickerson Field and Foxboro Stadium. From 1978 to 1980, Greater Boston was represented in the league by the New England Tea Men who played out of Foxboro Stadium. The team would relocate to Jacksonville, Florida after three seasons.
After the NASL folded on March 28, 1985, a new nationwide professional soccer league would re-emerge in 1996 in the form of Major League Soccer following the success of the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Greater Boston would be represented by the New England Revolution, who play all their home games in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Gillette Stadium has served as the Revolution's current home stadium since 2002. The club's nickname "Revolution" refers to the New England region's significant involvement in the American Revolutionary War that took place from 1775 to 1783. The Revolution have participated in five MLS Cup finals in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2014, but have not yet won. They won the 2021 MLS Supporters' Shield for the best regular season record.
Notable footballers who played in Boston include Portuguese legend Eusébio, and U.S. national team members: Taylor Twellman, Clint Dempsey, Alexi Lalas, and Billy Gonsalves.