Fans showing up for Valkyries 'in a big way' amid WNBA's ascent

Fans and employees of the Golden State Valkyries say they are ready to capitalize on both the surging national interest in the WNBA and the longstanding support women’s basketball has enjoyed locally.

Tipoff is a little less than a year away for the Valkyries, the first WNBA team to call San Francisco home and the first to play in Northern California since the Sacramento Monarchs folded in 2009 . The league’s final season without them is already historic.

On the heels of the emergence of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and their fellow 2024 rookies, the WNBA is setting attendance and TV viewership records . The league’s three most-watched games since 2001 have occurred in the first six weeks of the 2024 season, and the WNBA said it averaged nearly three times as many viewers on its national broadcasts (1.32 million) in the first month of the season than last year (462,000). The 400,000 fans who attended games through the end of May were the most in 26 years, according to the league.

The Valkyries are readying for their inaugural season amid the WNBA’s ascendancy, and following the longstanding success of the Stanford University women’s basketball team. The Cardinal have won three national championships and made 15 Final Four appearances.

After the NBA’s Golden State Warriors opened Chase Center in 2019, fans wondered whether or not the Golden State Warriors would ever bring a WNBA team to their new sporting cathedral. The WNBA accepted the Warriors’ bid for a team last year, expanding for the first time since 2008.

Kimberly Veale, the Valkyries’ senior vice president of marketing and communications, told The Examiner that longtime women’s sports supporters and newcomers alike have been incredibly receptive to the team, which bodes well for its inaugural season.

“This market has, for years, demanded a WNBA team, and from day one, our fans are showing up for this team already, in a big way,” Veale said. “The excitement around the team’s expansion announcement last October was incredible, but the buzz surrounding the brand launch was really special.”

The Valkyries finally unveiled their name, logo and violet-and-black color scheme in May, earning praise from Paige Bueckers — the UConn star expected to be the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft — and their own fans. The team told Bay Area News Group in May that initial merchandise sales were comparable to those of the Warriors’ annual alternate jerseys and related gear , while the announcement video narrated by singer-songwriter Kehlani, an Oakland native, garnered millions of views on social media.

Veale told The Examiner that the team name was the result of listening to fans through social media and surveys.

“At its core, the Valkyries are a relentless representation of who we will be in every way. Fearless, confident, unapologetic,” Veale said. “And as we curate how to represent the Valkyries from an identity standpoint it was important to find a colorway we could own.”

Bonnie Morris, a professor of sports and gender in U.S. history at UC Berkeley , told The Examiner that unique and recognizable identities are key in carving out a presence for professional women’s sports.

“We begin with the idea that the designator for men’s teams was always something ferocious,” she said. “It’s one of the few spaces where we celebrate terrorism as a positive characteristic of man.”

“The pillaging and thieving, that’s supposed to scare the rival,” Morris said. “You want to strike fear in the heart of the rival, and you do it in the name.”

The challenge for women, she said, has been “striking a balance between showing fierceness and moving away from a model that is all about your gender identity.”

Veale said that people of all ages, genders, races and socioeconomic backgrounds have embraced the Valkyries. Almost 14,000 people from across the Bay Area have placed $25-per-seat deposits for season tickets — Chase Center has a capacity of around 18,000 — while fans in 12 states have already bought team merchandise.

“The world is watching what we build under the Golden State legacy, and our goal continues to remain to be reflective of our community while embracing and representing women’s sports in a powerful unapologetic way,” Veale said.

Michelle McHugh, a fan who lives in Clayton, said she has been getting her share of women’s basketball for the past eight years through Pick Her Up, an Oakland-based women’s basketball community of more than 400 players who play organized and pickup games every week throughout the Bay Area.

McHugh said that every member of Pick Her Up talks about all things basketball, from the collegiate levels all the way up to the professional leagues. Until the Valkyries came to town, most of the women’s players were used to rooting for WNBA teams outside of the area but somewhat close geographically, such as the Seattle Storm, Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury.

Having their “own team is just something so special,” she said.

“We don’t have to root for these teams that are states away or hundreds of miles away,” she said. “We get our own, and it brings such an excitement.”

Morris told The Examiner that women’s sporting events have seen an uptick in interest largely because men’s events have “become ridiculously expensive and just not something that people can afford to take their kids to.” That is at least “partly” due to salary discrepancies between the leagues, she said.

“It’s all an economic struggle for women, but for the moment, it’s an option to introduce new families to the idea this is something you do on the weekend, you do on a weeknight,” she said. “This is how you expose the next generation to the normalcy of women’s athletics.”

Veale said that the Valkyries will be focused on building fandom within several underrepresented groups, especially among women and LGBTQ+ people of color .

“The WNBA is a trendsetter,” she said. “This league loudly and unapologetically advocates for the underserved communities, and our team will be no different.”

McHugh said that the Pick Her Up group is already thinking about having possible game night trips to Chase Center next year in a bid to build camaraderie off the court, as well as bringing their families and partners into the mix.

“I think this gives us a really good opportunity to expand outside the court, not only to share what we love to play and why we’re playing, but just again building an audience and a community around a game that can take place either playing or watching,” she said.

Once in the stands at Chase Center, McHugh said that she plans to cheer on every player on the court.

“I’m so excited to watch all this talent come to the bay and showcase their skills,” she said.

The palpable excitement is extending to the organization’s front office as well.

“We, along with our fans, are really excited to find out who will be wearing a Valkyries uniform in 2025,” Veale said.