Excitement is building across San Francisco as the Golden State Valkyries prepare to host Game 1 of the WNBA Finals at Chase Center, reaching the championship series in just their second season.<\/p>\n
Tickets for Games 1 and 2 went on sale Monday evening, with most seats selling out within minutes. Though Game 1 does not tip off until Saturday, fans are already gearing up for a historic weekend at Chase Center\u2014affectionately dubbed “Ballhalla.”<\/p>\n
Evan Marx, who moved to San Francisco from New York several years ago, said the electric atmosphere surrounding the Valkyries is unmatched.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s been incredible to see the arena completely filled and everybody in the neighborhood just super into it,” Marx said. “I live in New York, had the New York Liberty there and I never felt like it had the energy the Valkyries have.”<\/p>\n
The Bay Area team is celebrating a milestone after sweeping the defending champion Las Vegas Aces to secure their spot in the finals. They are now set to host the Atlanta Dream.<\/p>\n
At Splash Sports Bar in Thrive City, preparations are already underway to handle the influx of visitors.<\/p>\n
“You know, getting our staff ready, getting our social media, everybody to come here,” said Kenny Bachman, operations manager at Splash.<\/p>\n
The bar expects business to double as thousands of fans descend on Chase Center for the finals. Fans are also making early moves to secure team gear; Chanel Blackwell stopped by the team store hoping to pick up a Valkyries shirt.<\/p>\n
“I hope so and I feel like it\u2019s their year\u2026 I believe it\u2019s their year!” Blackwell said of the playoff atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, questions remain regarding the games scheduled in Atlanta. Scheduling conflicts will keep the matchup out of the 17,000-seat State Farm Arena, and while the WNBA has not officially announced an alternate venue, it is expected to be played at the Dream’s regular-season home\u2014a 3,500-seat arena nearly 50 miles outside Atlanta.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s unfortunate\u2026 maybe it\u2019s because they’re women? That\u2019s not right,” Blackwell said regarding the venue shift.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Marx is already imagining what a championship title would mean for the city, hoping to celebrate alongside his wife and two-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n
“A female championship down Market Street, I think would be amazing,” Marx said.<\/p>\n
For fans still hoping to attend, most available tickets have shifted to the resale market, with prices starting around $300 and select VIP seats listed above $6,000.<\/p>\n
Game 1 of the WNBA Finals tips off Saturday at Chase Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Excitement is building across San Francisco as the Golden State Valkyries prepare to host Game 1 of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-931222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}