{"id":474311,"date":"2026-02-17T18:37:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/474311\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T18:37:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:37:38","slug":"how-the-bay-became-the-new-capital-of-womens-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/474311\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Bay became the new capital of women\u2019s sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a> to receive regular email newsletters, including \u201cThe Dime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Robbins wasn\u2019t keeping official stats last season \u2014 at first. But after watching sophomore quarterback Bren David repeatedly throw perfect spirals 40 yards down the field and hit her receivers in stride, while scrambling, he realized it was time to start tracking the numbers.<\/p>\n

The very first time the Milpitas High School girls\u2019 flag football coach submitted stats to MaxPreps, a four-game stretch in which David completed 50 of 77 passes for 14 touchdowns earned her the publication\u2019s National Player of the Week honor. In just a single season, David became one of the fast-growing sport\u2019s biggest local stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cBren throws so well that our boys team invited her to throw in their 7-on-7 scrimmages this summer,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cI was afraid they were going to try and recruit her for the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

David had never played flag football before last year. But with her field vision, arm strength, and the shifty mobility of a \u201cninja,\u201d according to Robbins, she looks like the kind of athlete colleges would line up to offer \u2014 if those opportunities existed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think colleges are starting to be open-minded about the sport, but so far, I don\u2019t know that there are any with a flag program,\u201d David said. \u201cHopefully when I graduate or even before, they will start offering scholarships for flag.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ABren David is a talented enough flag football player to earn a college scholarship, but those opportunities are limited. | Source: Morgan Ellis\/The Standard<\/p>\n

A national women\u2019s flag football team competes annually in world championships, and the U.S. will field a squad for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, but opportunities are limited to the top 15 to 20 players in the country. There\u2019s no league on the scale of the WNBA or NWSL, but given the trajectory of women\u2019s sports, it could soon exist. And when it does, it\u2019ll have the Bay Area to thank.<\/p>\n

David\u2019s rapid ascent coincides with the region\u2019s sudden emergence as the capital of women\u2019s sports. The NWSL\u2019s newest organization, Bay FC, and the WNBA\u2019s youngest franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, are in their infancy, yet the startup teams have been embraced by local fans as if they\u2019ve been part of the region\u2019s sports fabric all along.<\/p>\n

With the success of the expansion franchises, there\u2019s a real sense that women\u2019s sports are enjoying a breakthrough moment in Northern California, and nationwide. Bay FC CEO Brady Stewart prefers a different way of describing this new era: a movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rocket ship is going to the stratosphere,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ABay FC finished in the top five of the NWSL in average single-game attendance in its first season in the league. | Source: Joyce Xi for The Standard<\/p>\n

That embrace is easy to feel. Not just in ticket and merchandise sales, or in the team\u2019s exploding valuations, but all around PayPal Park in San Jose and Chase Center in San Francisco, where the fan energy and support is deeply personal.<\/p>\n

When Santa Cruz local and longtime soccer fan Katie Greenwald heard about Bay FC\u2019s launch in 2024, she was quick to put down a deposit for season tickets.<\/p>\n

3 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

6 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Saturday, Feb. 7<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur day-to-day lives can be hard. We need moments in time where we can just cheer each other on and support women. I\u2019m all about it,\u201d Greenwald said before Bay FC\u2019s recent game against the San Diego Wave.<\/p>\n

That sentiment is echoed around Thrive City before every Valkyries game.<\/p>\n

\"ASource: Carolyn Fong for The Standard<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a basketball fan my whole life \u2014 the Golden State Warriors, of course, for 35 years,\u201d said Steff Brunson, a Valkyries season-ticket holder from Santa Rosa.\u00a0 \u201cHaving a women\u2019s team in the Bay Area means everything to me, because I\u2019m now represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents are making a point of taking their children to Valkyries and Bay FC games so they can see women compete at the highest level, an opportunity that wasn\u2019t available to previous generations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are huge sports fans, so we are so happy that there\u2019s a women\u2019s team for her to see and watch and aspire to,\u201d said Vicky Wang, standing beside her 10-year-old daughter Angela \u2014 a point guard herself, proudly wearing a Kaitlyn Chen Valkyries jersey.<\/p>\n

Six U.S. metropolitan areas host both a WNBA and an NWSL team. With the Portland Fire set to join the WNBA next year, that number will grow to seven. But when it comes to fan support, none come close to rivaling the Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ACharlee Underwood played college basketball and said it’s “essential” that her kids have the chance to see women playing professional sports. | Source: Carolyn Fong for The Standard<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look around the world, the Bay Area is leading the way in women\u2019s sports with incredibly successful franchises that started back-to-back years,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIt\u2019s very unique, it\u2019s very special, and I think it deserves to be celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its inaugural season, Bay FC finished in the top five of NWSL teams in average home attendance. And on Saturday, with more than 35,000 tickets already sold, a match against the Washington Spirit at Oracle Park will break the league\u2019s single-game attendance record.<\/p>\n

Inside Chase Center, Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase and WNBA Most Improved Player candidate Veronica Burton call Golden State fans the team\u2019s \u201csuperpower.\u201d The team has sold out all 17 home games this season in an arena that has one of the largest capacities in the WNBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TwoValkyries point guard Veronica Burton, left, and head coach Natalie Nakase regularly cite the team’s raucous fans as an advantage. | Source: Andrew J. Clark\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is diverse, it\u2019s queer, and it\u2019s very forward-thinking. Those are all things that women\u2019s sports are really pushing for, and San Francisco is a hub,\u201d said fan Kyle Silva, sitting in Thrive City before a game. \u201cHere is where they can thrive because there are a lot of people who will support the things that they want to try and push forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s sports surge isn\u2019t restricted to professional sports. It\u2019s gaining serious momentum at local high schools, too. Case in point: girls flag football.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sport was officially sanctioned at the high school level in California in 2023 \u2014 and has since become one of the nation\u2019s fastest-growing games. According to the California Interscholastic Federation, around 10,000 girls statewide participated in the inaugural season, signaling a major shift in interest and access for young female athletes.<\/p>\n

\"AParticipation in girls flag football has soared around the Bay Area in the last two years. | Source: Morgan Ellis\/The Standard<\/p>\n

At Milpitas High in the South Bay, the flag football program launched in 2023 as a club team with just 12 players. In 2024, the team was upgraded to the varsity level \u2014 and drew more than 40 girls to tryouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter is actually the one who recruited me,\u201d Robbins said of Hannah, a senior. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, my high school daughter wants to be seen with me? At school? I\u2019m in!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A similar trend has occurred at high schools across the Bay Area, including San Francisco\u2019s Lowell High, where player turnout has increased to the point that coach Bill Woodruff will roster 45 to 50 players and is seeking competition beyond his regular-season schedule so that more girls have opportunities to play.<\/p>\n

\"ASource: Morgan Ellis\/The Standard<\/p>\n

In just two years, the quality and quantity of players interested in participating in the sport has been transformative. The next step? Creating higher-level opportunities for girls flag football stars \u2014 the same kind that now exist for peers playing basketball and soccer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the pioneers of [flag football] in high school, the structure won\u2019t be in place for [them] yet,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cSo they\u2019re always like, \u2018I\u2019m just a couple years too early, and then hopefully those opportunities come.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\"ASource: Carolyn Fong for The Standard<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s indisputable that change is coming; all you need to do is look at the landscape filled with Valkyries and Bay FC supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m impressed, but also not surprised, by how much the Bay Area has shown up,\u201d said Jeni Kim, a Valkyries season ticket holder from Lafayette. \u201cI think what it really shows is that in this day and time, and in the culture that we live in, there are major cities all across America that are thirsty for this \u2014 the connection, the energy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive regular email…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[183385,4804,99,434],"class_list":["post-474311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-bay-fc","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}