Valkyries make WNBA debut with sky-high expectations

Reuters

15-05-2025

NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - Excitement for the WNBA's first expansion franchise in 17 years hits a fever pitch on Friday, as the Golden State Valkyries kick off their first season after blockbuster demand from fans.
The WNBA awarded the new franchise, its first since 2008, to the San Francisco Bay Area in October 2023, answering longstanding calls from players and fans to expand the top-flight American league.
That gave the team the extraordinary task to build itself from scratch - from branding and marketing to business operations and on-court talent - in only a year and a half.
Their first hire, president Jess Smith, was equal to the Herculean challenge: A day-one member of the Angel City FC front office, she helped build the 2020 NWSL expansion club into the world's most valuable women's professional team in a few years.
"Our aspirations are to lead commercially, whether that's ticketing, partnership, merchandise, et cetera," Smith told Reuters. "We're pretty confident that we will come out of the gate as the leader in the WNBA and beyond."
Their lone pre-season home game saw a whopping 17,428 in attendance, the third highest-attended pre-season game in league history.
The team kicks off the inaugural season with more than 10,000 full season ticket holders, playing out of the same arena where their NBA counterparts, the seven-time champions Golden State Warriors, compete.
While they share a common court, the Valkyries have carved out their own identity and fanbase in the title-rich Bay Area, as only 5% of those 10,000-plus season ticket holders have season tickets with the Warriors, too.
"We built a totally unique audience coming to the same venue for the same sport to showcase that it is a unique audience that is asking for this product," said Smith.
"You cannot discount women sports fans. Women sports fans have been underserved for so long and understudied and undervalued forever."
With the league riding an upswing of attendance and television viewership, the expectations are high.
The WNBA is adding two more clubs in Portland and Toronto in 2026, while business leaders in Nashville, Cleveland and Detroit have expressed interest in adding teams.
"They've laid a really ambitious blueprint for these other franchises to try and follow," ESPN analyst Ryan Ruocco told reporters on Wednesday.
"I feel very confident, regardless of what struggles they have on the floor in year one, that they're going to look like a really attractive franchise and that their in-arena experience, their in game experience is going to be one that attracts players."
While on-court challenges could be expected for any newcomer, general manager Ohemaa Nyanin has set an ambitious course with a roster that embraces the international growth of the sport.
Wednesday's final roster included seven international players, as well as domestic talent, like 2024 Sixth Woman of the Year Tiffany Hayes.
"We're competitive, we're hungry. We're not satisfied with just one win," said Nyanin, who saw the New York Liberty reach the playoffs three times in five years in various roles across the organization before joining Golden State.
"We want more - we're going to go out and take it."
The Valkyries tip off on Friday at home against the Los Angeles Sparks.