Why the Valkyries' first home playoff game might not be played at Chase Center

San Francisco Chronicle​

21 hours ago

After selling out every game at Chase Center this season, the Golden State Valkyries have had to confront the possibility of playing in the playoffs somewhere else.
That's because the Laver Cup, an international team tennis event that puts European players against 'the world' over a three-day weekend, will be held at Chase Center from Sept. 19-21. That weekend happens to be during the WNBA's first round of the postseason.
Earlier this season, the Valkyries organization seemed more sure that there would not be a problem. However, the schedule unavoidably runs up against the window of time when the team could potentially host a first-round game. On Wednesday, the Valkyries finally addressed the problem publicly.
'Due to Chase Center hosting Laver Cup, a global tennis tournament, which was booked prior to Golden State's acquisition of the Golden State Valkyries, we are navigating potential venue impacts if the Valkyries were to make a historic playoff run in their inaugural season,' a team spokesperson said in a statement to the Chronicle. 'Our primary goal is to ensure the best possible experience for our fans and athletes.
'At this point, with so much uncertainty in potential playoff seeding and Playoff game dates, we do not yet know what if/any impact this will have on Valkyries home games.'
In this year's playoff format, the lower-seeded team hosts the second game of a best-of-three series. Given their current place in the standings, the Valkyries are likely to fall into that category. The WNBA has tentatively scheduled two series to play their respective Game 2's on Sept 16, and the other two on Sept 17.
The main problem is that the Laver Cup will have an open practice day at Chase Center on Sept. 18, making a potential Sept. 17 game difficult, perhaps impossible, to get in before setting up for tennis the next day. A source within the organization told the Chronicle on background that the typical breakdown of an event at Chase Center lasts about a day.
Two organizational sources told the Chronicle a WNBA playoff game scheduled on the 16th might also have to be moved to an alternative venue as well. Since Chase Center has never hosted tennis before, breakdown and setup for the Laver Cup will be a first for the venue, and the time required may differ from other conversions.
The Valkyries are still hopeful to strike an agreement with their guests to host their own playoff game at Chase Center, per both organizational sources. Organizers from the Laver Cup and ATP did not respond to the Chronicle's interview request regarding how they were working with the Valkyries on scheduling.
If the Valkyries were to finish in a top-four seed — increasingly unlikely, as the Valkyries don't have the tiebreaker with any of the current four best teams in the WNBA — they would host Game 1 on Sept. 14 and a potential Game 3 on either Sept. 18 or 19. That admittedly unlikely scenario would force a third game in that series to be played somewhere else.
One of the organizational sources told the Chronicle that the Valkyries would look at nearby venues in San Jose, Oakland or even Sacramento if they needed to play elsewhere. Both San Jose's SAP Center (18,500) and Oakland Arena (19,596), the former home of the Golden State Warriors, have nothing on their public schedules, while Sacramento's Golden 1 Center (capacity of 17,608) has concerts on Sept. 17 and 19. The team has already begun working out how season-ticket holders could have equivalent seating in those arenas in the event of a move.
When asked if the league was having discussions to move playoff dates to help the Valkyries stay at Chase Center, a WNBA spokesperson told the Chronicle to reach out to the Valkyries and declined to comment further.
WNBA teams have been forced to move postseason games to third-party sites for other scheduled events. In the 2020s alone, the Los Angeles Sparks had a playoff game bumped for the Emmys (to Long Beach State), the Las Vegas Aces had a game shifted to UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center for a concert, and the Phoenix Mercury had to play a game at Arizona State because ofa 'Disney on Ice' show. One of the considered benefits of the league targeting NBA ownership groups as new WNBA team owners has been to have more autonomy and arena control. But in the case of the Valkyries, that benefit has limits as the event schedule for team-owned Chase Center extends beyond basketball.
Chase Center officials announced that the venue would host the Laver Cup in March 2024, but it was scheduled with Chase Center officials the summer before the Valkyries were announced as an expansion franchise in Oct. 2023, but the potential scheduling conflict emerged when the team put itself into the WNBA playoff picture. Joe Lacob, who owns the Warriors and Chase Center, owns the Valkyries as well.
The Valkyries lead the league in average attendance by a good margin. Opposing players have lauded how loud and passionate the audience has been.
'Man, the crowd was crazy,' Minnesota guard Courtney Williams said during All-Star Weekend. 'I ain't gonna lie, like I think we were up on them like 10-15 at one point and they probably went on like a little three-, five-point run and it felt like they tied the game up… Yeah, 18,000 (fans)? Damn right it's different.'
It's not an ideal situation for an organization where seemingly everything else has gone right in its inaugural season.
'The energy at Chase Center has made Ballhalla what it is: the toughest home court advantage in the WNBA,' the Valkyries statement concluded. 'While we navigate the potential arena impacts for the postseason, the anticipation for WNBA Playoff basketball in the Bay Area is palpable. This fan base continues to fuel our team, and is a driving force behind such a historic first season.'
If the Valkyries do earn a playoff spot and host a Game 2, the possibility of staying at Chase Center is still being clung to by some within the organization. And the scheduling conflict provides a lesson learned the hard way; 'This is something we will avoid now that we know,' one of the organizational sources said.
Depending on the Valkyries' fortunes, the playoff schedule could be a factor for future considerations for Chase Center's schedule. The first Warriors preseason home game this season is Oct. 5 — the same day that Game 2 of the WNBA Finals has been scheduled to be played.
As the Valkyries draw closer to earning a playoff spot, they will inevitably have to make a decision about where their first-ever home playoff game or games will be played. According to a team source, that choice will be made within the next two weeks.