{"id":518870,"date":"2026-03-12T10:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/518870\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T10:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:01:19","slug":"ride-of-the-valkyries-how-the-wnba-finally-found-a-home-in-the-bay-area-golden-state-valkyries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/518870\/","title":{"rendered":"Ride of the Valkyries: how the WNBA finally found a home in the Bay Area | Golden State Valkyries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Purple-dyed ponytails and sequin jackets glittering in shades of black and violet. Fans are decked out in sports logos and LGBTQ rainbows while Black Box\u2019s Everybody Everybody \u2013 a queer dance club classic \u2013 booms from the speakers. Ali Wong is playfully dancing on the Jumbotron. There\u2019s no misinterpreting it: the WNBA has arrived in the San Francisco<\/a> Bay Area.<\/p>\n

The Golden State Valkyries \u2013 who are owned by Golden State Warriors tech mogul Joe Lacob, and housed with their sibling franchise at Chase Center in San Francisco \u2013 were announced in 2023 (their name was confirmed<\/a> in 2024) as the first WNBA expansion team since 2008. Last Friday, the team made their WNBA debut, against the Los Angeles Sparks, in front of a sellout crowd of 18,064.<\/p>\n

As local reporter Randy Dumalig said on KCBS<\/a>, \u201cit felt like everyone and their mom was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The energy in and around the arena was electric. A diverse, intergenerational crowd that skewed noticeably more female than those at most Bay Area sporting events gathered from all over the region to celebrate the WNBA\u2019s splashy and long overdue arrival. With local celebrities such as Steve Kerr, Jonathan Kuminga and Brandi Chastain also in attendance, WNBA<\/a> games are suddenly a real Bay Area attraction.<\/p>\n

But it has taken the WNBA a long time to arrive. When the \u201cW\u201d started play in 1997, the San Francisco Bay was surprisingly excluded, despite its sports pedigree. Sacramento, roughly two hours away, was given its own team, the Monarchs, but they folded in 2009.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an opportunity for women\u2019s basketball had been steadily accruing in the Bay Area. The franchise has already made history by becoming the first in the WNBA to surpass 10,000 season-ticket holders, a feat that was declared mid-game against the Sparks, who ultimately defeated the still-inexperienced Valkyries 84-67 on Friday. Chants of \u201cGSV\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Go Valkyries\u201d broke out throughout the night at decibels that longtime Bay Area fans may recall from the days when the Golden State Warriors played at Oracle Arena. With the Valkyries\u2019 practice facility and headquarters located in the previously vacant Warriors\u2019 offices in downtown Oakland<\/a>, they\u2019re sure to appeal to fans from all over the Bay\u2019s shoreline, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing like this for a long time,\u201d says Mickey, a 74-year-old who made the commute from Silicon Valley during rush hour for the inaugural Valkyries game (she requested not to publish her full name). Before tip off, she sat in front of the arena in an electric wheelchair wearing her Valkyries gear, soaking it all in. \u201cI used to go to Sacramento to watch the WNBA; I didn\u2019t miss a single playoff game [during the team\u2019s championship season] in 2005. I\u2019ve been waiting for a WNBA team in the Bay Area for over 27 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The air seems noticeably fresher in town with the WNBA \u2013 a league known for its social justice efforts<\/a>, gender and labor equity advocacy, and its appeal to queer and non-traditional fans. Enthusiasts like Mickey abound here and are a reminder of the many dimensions of sports fandom that can thrive in a place like the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

And yet, Ballhalla (a de facto nickname for the Valkyries\u2019 home court, and a playful ode to Valhalla, the mythic hall of fallen warriors in Nordic myth) wasn\u2019t built overnight. Women\u2019s basketball has had a rich, if not overlooked legacy in the Bay. And its phalanx of supporters, in tandem with the Bay Area\u2019s vibrant arts and culture scenes, have been ready for their big shot.<\/p>\n

In 1969, Lew Alcindor \u2013 later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar \u2013 was the No 1 overall pick in the NBA draft; he went on to become a dominant Hall of Fame force who would change the sport. Yet, a far lesser known prospect was drafted that very same night. She who would have just as profound effect on the sport by becoming the first hooper to break the league\u2019s gender barrier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Denise Long was selected by the then-San Francisco Warriors in the 13th round with the 175th pick, becoming the only female player to be picked in the NBA draft. This was nearly 30 years before the formation of the WNBA.<\/p>\n

Long\u2019s tenure as a professional basketballer in San Francisco didn\u2019t last. The league\u2019s commissioner, Walter Kennedy, immediately annulled the move, citing her status as a high schooler and gender. Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, a bombastic Bay Area entrepreneur, had another gameplan \u2013 launching a women\u2019s basketball league in nearby Daly City.<\/p>\n

Golden State Valkyries players gather on court after their opening game. Photograph: Jeff Chiu\/AP<\/p>\n

Long, who had scored more than 100 points in a single game three times in high school, would go on to headline the nascent, local women\u2019s circuit (Mieuli gave his young star a purple Jaguar to show his esteem for her skills). That season, four women\u2019s teams competed before every Warriors home game. But the league folded after one campaign, and Long moved back to her home state of Iowa to lead a quiet life away from basketball.<\/p>\n

Pro women\u2019s basketball wouldn\u2019t renew itself until 1979, when the San Francisco Pioneers of the Women\u2019s Professional Basketball League made Oakland native Anna Johnson the first professional women\u2019s player from the Bay Area<\/a>. Like the Warriors\u2019 upstart efforts, however, it proved too difficult to maintain a professional women\u2019s franchise in the area. The San Jose Lasers (also funded by Lacob)<\/a> would make an attempt in 1996, along with the San Jose Spiders, but both failed. And though the Stanford Cardinal assembled an college dynasty in Palo Alto, winning three national titles, the professional women\u2019s game never caught a break in the Bay Area. Until now.<\/p>\n

Michelle Miller has worked for the Golden State Warriors, Bay Area Panthers and California Golden Bears. Better known as DJShellheart<\/a>, she keeps the energy high at Bay Area sporting events. As a Black, queer woman rooted in the local hip-hop scene, she says nothing feels quite like working with the Valkyries as one of the team\u2019s DJs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the start of something bigger, just having a safe space to go, to feel comfortable and not be scared to speak about sports with [like minded] people,\u201d she says. \u201cThe Valkyries coming to the Bay has shifted the energy. Since last year we\u2019ve been doing community drives, girl\u2019s camps focused on mental health, things that are just bringing positivity. This is the ideal place to have a team like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s just one of the Valkyries\u2019 community partners. Others include artists like Kehlani, P-Lo, E-40 \u2013 who performed for the opening game\u2019s half-time show to a raucous crowd \u2013 and Goapele, a legendary R&B singer who is appointed as one of the Valkyries\u2019 public ambassadors. In an effort to build inroads within local arts and culture, the team has also initiated its Valkyries Collective<\/a> program, featuring athletes, influencers and entertainers from the area.<\/p>\n

Even the Valkyries\u2019 head coach Natalie Nakase, who became the first Asian American head coach in league history<\/a>, has quasi-local roots. The Californian began her professional career as a point guard with the San Jose Spiders about an hour south of San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The organization\u2019s focus on the local area can be seen in the arena\u2019s rafters. Allison Hueman<\/a> is a decorated Filipina muralist from the East Bay who grew up watching the Warriors. Though she has worked with the NBA in past seasons \u2013 even designing a Nike uniform for the Dubs in 2022-23<\/a> \u2013 she is particularly excited to team up with the V\u2019s. Her work often incorporates womanhood, femininity, and Bay Area immigrant identity. So it\u2019s no surprise that she was brought on to paint a Valkyries-sponsored mural at their practice facility in Oakland. The work is sprawling, covering 200ft and unfurls elegantly across a long hallway: a surrealistic rendition of women in battle, running mid court, swords drawn, galloping towards what appears to be victory, clouded in a purplish, dreamlike haze. It is everything that a women\u2019s basketball team in the Bay Area is, and may one day yet be.<\/p>\n

The Valkyries have already built a passionate fanbase. Photograph: Jeff Chiu\/AP<\/p>\n

Back in San Francisco inside Splash Bar \u2013 a Steph Curry-backed sports bar, in which the NBA star has expressed his support for the Valkyries<\/a> \u2013 WNBA games are being shown on a huge screen before Friday\u2019s game. Outside, flocks of Valkyries fans mingle hours before tip off, eager to be a part of history.<\/p>\n

Fans like Teresa Guillen and Diane Rosen, Gen Xers who live in San Francisco and have had ties to the Warriors since the 70s, now have a top-shelf women\u2019s team to root for. Former high school players like Yolanda Shavies, who grew up across the Bay Bridge in Oakland and once had aspirations of playing professionally. These are the fans who the team represents; and they certainly didn\u2019t disappoint when they showed up for game number one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting a long time for this,\u201d says Shavies, who crafted a Valkyries-emblazoned sword, which she carried around as an accessory to complement her violet shirt and color-coordinated Nikes. \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting a long time for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve found the finishing piece to what the Bay Area was missing,\u201d DJShellheart says. \u201cAdding the WNBA is like finishing that thousand-piece puzzle. It\u2019s an image and color we could never fully see until now.\u201d<\/p>\n