Inside the Golden State Valkyries’ first game — and how they’re building a WNBA team from scratch

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Surreal.

That’s how both Kimberly Veale, SVP of marketing and communications, and head coach Natalie Nakase described the Golden State Valkyries first-ever game — a sellout crowd of 18,064 at Chase Center last Friday.

The moment was a long time in the making — 589 days to be exact.

On October 5, 2023, the WNBA announced the team as their 13th WNBA franchise — without a name, logo or roster. Since then, the Valkyries have built a brand, a fan base and a team from the ground up.

“It’s all about building audience,” Veale said hours before the first game tipped off as she fielded a flurry of phone calls, texts and staffers looking for her attention.

“This community has demanded this team for many, many years. So there’s a responsibility on all of us to bring this brand to life in a way that makes the Bay proud,” she says.

Multiple people The Current spoke with called this a transformational moment in WNBA history.

Record-breaking audiences have been tuning in to women’s sports as streaming platforms continue diversifying content. In 2024, the league became the fastest-growing brand in the U.S. — and the Valkyries arrived at the perfect moment to ride that momentum as the first WNBA expansion team since 2008.

They’ve already made history. The Valkyries became the first WNBA team ever to surpass 10,000 season ticket sales. It more than doubled the previous record with 22,000 season ticket deposits.

Surprisingly, fewer than 5% of Valkyries season ticket holders also hold season tickets for the Golden State Warriors (arguably the NBA’s most popular franchise), meaning the Valkyries have reached a whole new fan base in the Bay Area.

“What we know about a lot of our fans is that they care about the WNBA athletes on and off the court,” Veale says. “They care about how this brand shows up in the community with authenticity. We’re a brand that is going to show up for this community 365 days out of the year.”

Winning with data

The Valkyries’ marketing engine is powered by data. Everything — from who’s buying tickets and merchandise to who’s engaging on social media channels — is tracked and analyzed.

Just 60 days after the franchise unveiled its name, logo and its signature “Valkryies Violet,” fans in 50 states and 11 countries had bought team apparel. Fans in 70 countries have now bought merchandise.

Driving this engagement are the team’s first two marketing campaigns. Art of Expansion chronicles the team’s early milestones, nine months before any players were on the roster. First of a Lifetime captures the emotional highs and lows of the inaugural season.

The Valkyries fan base is split evenly between women and men, with broad age representation. On opening night, the sold-out Chase Center was filled with families — boys and girls alike wearing Valkyries regalia.

Little did they know that inside, hours before tip-off, the arena was buzzing as all the final pieces were coming together. Nineteen months of planning condensed into a few hours. By the time player introductions began, the atmosphere at the Chase Center was electric.

Chase Center had new life, two days after the Warriors season ended.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was in attendance, along with Jonathan Kuminga, Kevon Looney, Buddy Hield and Brandin Podziemski. Steph Curry said he’ll going to as many games as he can.

Women’s sports’ chicken-or-egg conundrum

For years, women’s sports have been stuck in a chicken-or-egg cycle  — needing investment to gain popularity but needing popularity to gain investment.

In 2019, fewer than 1% of all corporate partnership sports deals went to women’s sports, according to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaking on The Bill Simmons Podcast. But the tide is turning.

Sponsorships in women’s sports grew 12% year over year in 2024, according to SponsorUnited, with EDO reporting a 139% increase in 2023 to 2024.

Chase is one of the biggest brands leading that charge.

The banking giant is the first founding partner of the Valkyries, with the Chase Freedom logo adorned on the team’s jerseys. For Kate Schoff, Chase’s managing director of sports and entertainment, the partnership was “a no-brainer.”

“It’s the perfect opportunity for us to continue to reach our customers and our fans where they’re passionate,” Schoff tells The Current. “People love sports. It’s a human connector. So it was a natural next step for us.”

She believes the rapid trajectory happening right now is built on the foundation of decades of work. Chase is all in and already seeing ROI.

Chase also sponsors WNBA icon A’ja Wilson, whose first signature Nike shoe recently sold out in five minutes, along with the Women’s PGA Championship and the U.S. Open Tennis Championship.

“Putting the investment in is not a hard sell,” Schoff says. “There’s going to be ROI. The fans are there, and it’s about continuing to build the product.”

Figures from America’s fastest-growing brand

The “W,” as many call it, saw its best attendance in 22 years last season, up 48% from 2023. The league also had its most-watched regular season in 24 years.

Overall, women’s sports are projected to reach $2.35 billion in revenue in 2025, up 25% from 2024.

A staggering $1 billion is coming from basketball, a roughly $300 million jump from 2024, making it the top earning women’s sport in the world. This is the first year that basketball will top women’s soccer as the No. 1 earner.

The “W” is continuing to expand, with new teams in Portland and Toronto next year and Engelbert saying there will be a 16th team added by 2028. Still, even she thinks all this massive growth came three or four years earlier than she expected.

When Engelbert became commissioner in 2019, the WNBA had one marketing employee. Now, it has around 30.

The league signed a massive $2.2 billion media rights deal that goes into effect next season, increasing from $40 million a year to $200 million. Englebert says that number will likely jump even higher to $260 million.

ABC, ESPN, Disney+, CBS, CBS Sports, Paramount+, ION, NBA TV and Amazon Prime Video are all broadcast and streaming partners, with NBC and Peacock joining in next year.

The Valkyries will have 17 nationally televised or streamed games (of 44), with the rest shown on the local CBS affiliates in San Francisco and Sacramento.

Even as Veale raced to lock down all the details for the Valkyries’ debut, she couldn’t help but look ahead.

“Hopefully, three to five years from now, as this league continues to grow, we’re going to look back on this time and be proud of the foundations that were built here in the Bay,” she says. “The sky’s the limit for us.”