On October 5, 2023, the WNBA announced an expansion team would be coming to San Francisco.
The Golden State Valkyries became the first expansion team in seventeen years. Their entire first season brought a kind of magic that you might only see in the movies. A fandom that excited kids, their parents, the LGBTQ+ community — the entire Bay.
They flipped the script on what it looks like to support female athletes and ended up becoming the most valuable team in any American women’s professional sports franchise. How did they do it and make the Bay believers? We find out in the season finale of our series Bounce: The Valkyries first season in the Bay.
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HOST ERIN LIM: If you thought that the Valkyries season was a roller coaster - what’s going on now in the W is wild.
ERIN: Let me break it down……the best team in the league all season — The Minnesota Lynx — had their best player get injured, their coach get suspended, and then lost their playoff series to the Phoenix Mercury all within the final 50 minutes of their season
ERIN: In her exit interview, that injured player, Napheesa Collier, let the WNBA have it.
NAPHEESA COLLIER: Since I've been in the league, you've heard the constant concerns about officiating and it has now reached levels of inconsistency that play our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates. Whether the league cares about the health of the players is one thing, but to also not care about the product we put on the floor is truly self-sabotage. year after year. The only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders.
ERIN: Then Napheesa focused in on Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
NAPHEESA COLLIER: Our leadership’s answer to being held accountable is to suppress everyone’s voices by handing out fines. I’m not concerned about the fine. I’m concerned about the future of our sport. We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world, but right now, we have the worst leadership in the world.
ERIN: Mic. Drop. Napheesa’s words have disrupted the league and activated the W’s fanbase. She’s using her platform.
As the Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association’s vice president and as one of the founders of Unrivaled. An offshoot three-on-three league — to call out the leaders who seem to dismiss the players ongoing concerns. Her statement is now a major talking point that goes hand-in-hand with the pending collective bargaining agreement.
ERIN: The current WNBA collective bargaining agreement expires on October 31. IT’S an agreement between players and owners that ranges from topics of salary, healthcare, and even family leave.
It’s been five years since the last CBA was revised and a lot has happened since then. The league has grown in audience size. Expansion teams are rolling out quickly. The appetite for women’s sports has grown. And now we are at a tipping point for the players in the W.
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ERIN: The WNBA finals are in full effect. The Las Vegas Aces are battling the Phoenix Mercury in the W’S FIRST best-of-seven game series ever to decide the championship. And even though the finals should be the conversation around the W, the bigger plot line is happening behind the scenes.
ERIN: In her own press conference about the WNBA finals, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert responded to Naphessa Collier’s Criticism
CATHY ENGELBERT: I have been in touch with Nafisa. Um, we've exchanged texts, uh, we're talking next week. Um, so I think, um, obviously a lot of reporting, a lot of inaccuracy about what I said or what I didn't say. Um, and I will tell you I highly respect the players. Um, there's a lot of emotion and passion going on right now 'cause we're in collective bargaining. We're in the WNBA finals. Uh, and so I'll leave it there.
ERIN: The day after that, Napheesa Collier reportedly called off her meeting with the commissioner.
ERIN: In my humble opinion, none of this is surprising. The Commissioner doesn’t seem to know her players, or coaches, very well at all. Just listen to her announcement about the WNBA’s coach of the year, Natalie Nakase:
Cathy Engelbert: So it is my absolute honor to present the 2025 State Street Investment Management, spy, WNBA, coach of the Year Award to Golden State Valkyries coach, Natalie Nakase.
ERIN: When I heard Cathy mispronounce our coach’s name, I kind of lost it. If the league commissioner doesn’t know how to pronounce the best coach’s last name, or at least bother to learn how to say it - it’s a BIG red flag. Cathy we need to talk.
ERIN: The Golden State Valkyries may be out of the W conversation right now, but a lot of us fans are still riding the wave of a history making inaugural season. From a draft day party in Thrive City in April, to watching pre-season practices in downtown Oakland, and the first game played at Ballhalla – covering this team and their first season has been a life highlight.
ERIN: And we’re going take just a minute to talk about a couple of the top moments, with the Executive Producer of BOUNCE — and KALW — Ben Trefny. Hey Ben!
BEN: Great memory.
ERIN: Yeah, but all this … it didn’t just happen.
ERIN: So much work went into making this magical year. And I decided to chat with Valkyries stakeholders and fans to see what it took to enchant so many people into wearing the color violet.
BEN: I can’t wait to hear this.
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Erin’s Feature
REPORTER ERIN LIM: There’s this thing that happens when you go to a Valkyries game. It’s like stepping into the happiest place on earth - without the castle or mouse ears. The color violet is everywhere. On hats, shirts, pants, on shoes, capes — even violet dyed hair.
BECKY: The atmosphere in here is so electric and we're all just having a great time and it, it's an escape from everything else that's going on in the world.
REPORTER: All kinds of folks, like season-ticket holder Becky, gather inside and outside the Chase Center taking selfies — giddy to watch the Valks’ take the court.
This was the first season, but the vibe started years ago. Valkyries KPIX-TV commentator Zena Keita shared her experience as a then employee of the Golden State Warriors at one of KALW’s live Bounce events.
ZENA KEITA: I was put on a task force. To help come up with the concept of A-W-N-B-A team. I was a person represented from the partnerships department to come up and do the research to figure out how could we bring a team to the bay. That is how the Valks came to be. We researched every arena. We research average ticket prices.
REPORTER: and researched what would make them winners.
ZENA KEITA: Figuring out what type of players should we bring in based on the percentages of the analytics of what would be needed for a championship team. Three pointers versus two pointers. That's how detailed it was.
REPORTER: Warriors owner Joe Lacob was already in. He had been an investor in the American Basketball League in the ‘90s before there was a WNBA. He owned the San Jose Lasers. In fact, he was the ABL’s largest private investor.
ZENA KEITA: You don't have to convince him it's a good product. That's what we had to do. It was a six-week ordeal of us presenting to him and Peter Guber.
REPORTER: The task force looked at where this dream team would play. Santa Cruz, the official home of the Warriors G League? San Jose? Would they build a new stadium close to where the San Jose Sharks play hockey? Or would they play at Chase and block off the top level? Taping off the top level of arenas has been a thing in the W and for teams that don’t sell out big stadiums. I’m looking at you Oakland A’s.
REPORTER: They didn’t want this to feel like a JV team. And, as Zena said, this is the Bay Area: we were built for this.
ZENA KEITA: It does start with the roots of this place. There's already a love for women's basketball here. There's already respect for women's basketball from the college level. Talking about Stanford, you're talking about Cal, USF, you name it, there's tons San Jose State, there's tons of already respect for women's basketball.
STEPH CURRY: I just wanna welcome the WNBA to the Bay Area lookin’ forward to having you all. Can’t wait to see you thrive at the highest level. Let’s get it.
Reporter: ABC-7 covered the announcement
ABC-7 ANCHORS: Let's get it. A warm welcome from Steph Curry himself as, uh, he welcomed women's professional basketball to the Bay Area. Yeah, today the WNBA announced a new team will be playing at Chase Center starting in two thousand twenty five.
REPORTER: Ownership madie its first official hire in January 2024. President Jess Smith. She brought receipts. Jess worked her way up the ladder with the Oakland A’s as a Corporate Accounts Manager, was the Vice President of Sponsorship at the San Jose Earthquakes , and then was hired down in Los Angeles in 2020 as the Head of Corporate Sponsorships and then revenue at the Angel City Football Club – a brand new women’s soccer team.
In 2024 Angel City would be named the most valuable women’s sports club in the world. This was the kind of experience this new W team needed.
I chatted with Jess before a game. We talked about the business of marketing a brand new team. Like what does it look like to name a team?
JESS SMITH: So if you look at the categories across right, often you see types of animals, types of natural disasters, types of fighters of some sort, warriors, obviously, for instance. As we were going through that process, we had also put out a survey right when they had achieved the expansion fee to just say, what should we name the team? And it was a open-ended question. There was no dropdown, there was no leading, it was true curiosity. And 25% of people said Valkyries.
REPORTER: That was 1 in 4 people just writing in Valkyries for the team name. A survey that was sent out to Golden State fans by the organization. And it made sense, as the Marvel universe was introducing Valkyrie to their audience, a Valkyrie was a good connect to a Warrior but different enough to start building a new brand.
Jess, Joe and the rest of the front office wanted to set the Valkyries apart from the Warriors. No blue and gold. No direct line to their NBA counterpart.
For the decision makers, the Valkyries name brought up an icy, purpleish hue. They just couldn’t quit it. And that color with black let it shine.
JESS SMITH: You'll see people that have invested in this color because they understand the value set that now people are starting to put together, even from recognizing Valkyrie violet.
REPORTER: That violet, though. Coupled with the iconic logo. There is a ton of storytelling involved. The nod to the Bay Bridge. The lines inside the logo that represent the thirteen active teams in the W. And the shape. It’s a V for Valkyries and looks like the tip of a spear — it’s perfect for battle on the court.
And while all that is fierce, the team embraced the spirit of belonging too. Like the intergenerational dance team, the Violet Vibes. And the mascot Violet, introduced to the fans mid-season, who loves shiny things and has plenty of sass.
ELLEN: They just make me feel empowered. It elevates all of us by experiencing what they're doing out there.
REPORTER: Superfan Ellen fits right in with her violet wig, violet cape, and a violet jumpsuit. And that feeling she’s talking about gives me goosebumps. You’ve got two female DJ’s rocking the soundsystem at the games. There’s two women on the PA, the WNBA’s Coach of the Year Natalie Nakase on the sideline, and women leading the front office. We’ve got women leading the whole damn thing.
TRISTAN: I just feel like there's so many people here supporting women, and I just feel it's making me feel supported in some way. I don't know why.
REPORTER: Tristan, from Danville, came to a Valks game with her cousin as an outing before they headed off to college.
TRISTAN: It's just like, I love to see people showing up for women's sports.
REPORTER: The energy at Valk’s games is infectious. The set up feels like you’re in a club made for everyone. Especially for a mother and daughter duo who commute to every game from the East Bay. You’ve probably seen them just a few rows back behind the Valkyries bench donning gold Valkyries headpieces and purple boa’s. Mom goes by Lydia Ortega and her daughter prefers Momo. They could be the second and third mascots for the team. Lydia’s gift to her daughters is bringing them to these games.
LYDIA ORTEGA: It was really hard when she loved basketball and in her early age had to play with the boys and I wanted something beautiful for them and this, this a beautiful opportunity to give to my girls.
REPORTER: A lot of folks get in their feelings about the Valks’, including President Jess Smith.
JESS SMITH: I mean, I get emotional every game. I am just amazed at the fandom, you know, that comes through here and the fact that I get to be a small part of it and it's my job.
REPORTER: Nostalgia comes up for some fans. Kevin Santos, another Valkyries season ticket holder who’s a PE teacher describes how Valk’s games feel for him.
KEVIN SANTOS: This actually reminds me a lot of how Oracle was back in the day.
Reporter: Oracle is now called the Oakland Arena and it’s where the Golden State Warriors called home for 47 years.
KEVIN SANTOS: It was very affordable for, um, the regular fan. I think, um, as nice as Chase is and with the Warriors, I think it got a bit expensive for diehard fans.
REPORTER: At one point, the Valkyries offered a pair of tickets for 60 dollars which also included two hot dogs and two fountain drinks. I know this because my algorithm was targeting me with these ads.
But You don’t have to be inside of the Chase Center to find that Valks’ joy.
LET’S GO VALKYRIES…clap, clap, clap……LET’S GO VALKYRIES…..
REPORTER: That’s the sound of Rikki’s - the first women’s sports bar in San Francisco. It’s one of the small businesses benefitting from the violet wave.
That connectedness shows up in the indie merch you see from creators like Oaklandish, Donut Time Designs, and Old Skool too. It boosts the Valk’s brand without the steep licensed league prices.
And seeing those out in the wild makes my eyes happy.
And what about those Valkyries. The season's magic wouldn’t be anything without the players. They were the underdogs. When the season started, there was literally no star. And as the season unfolded, injuries hampered the team which could have made the season go sideways.
Instead, it made each team member step THE F*&*! up.
When Kayla Thorton went out with a knee injury right after her history-making All Star appearance - the captain’s hat went to Tip Hayes. And as she and other Valks like Mo Billings ad Ceci Zandalisini went down like dominoes, others came in hot — Veronica Burton, Carla Leite, Janelle Salaun, Kate Martin, Temi Fagbenle and Iliana Rupert — to help get the team to the playoffs. No one predicted this.
This Golden State Valkyries history making season was pure, unadulterated joy. We were in a protected violet bubble where the reality of the world didn’t permeate. We were rooting together and celebrating all of these women – from different places around the country and the globe. It was hyphy, emotional, and fun.
And even though we’ve seen some professional teams leave the City and the Town —The Valks’ proved that the Bay’s still got it.