Ascending to Ballhalla

The WNBA announced this past Monday that the professional women’s basketball league will expand to 18 teams. Nearly two years ago, when they announced a Northern California franchise, it was shrouded in mystery. It would be a year before they announced the next franchise to Portland or the team name. However, this week, four more teams were confirmed. The timing of this sudden bloom of teams is no accident.

The Valkyries can claim some credit, though that credit should be shared. It’s definitely due to the players; absolutely the coaches; partly the owners; unquestionably to the growing fan base, in the Bay Area, and in general; to the WNBA of today; to all the US Women’s Olympics teams back to 1976; and to all the women’s basketball players, across the six professional leagues that did not survive; in the industrial leagues that lasted for years before, during, and after the wars, in dimly lit, humid gymnasiums with cramped locker rooms, where the locals cheered madly for their wives and daughters and sisters and neighbors. For this success story, there are a lot of shoulders to stand on.

Perhaps you don’t give a fig about basketball. You have plenty of company. However, you don’t have to enjoy basketball to appreciate the success of the Valkyries, a bunch of no-names, who play fiercely with such joy, in front of fans who have yearned for a team that represents them. It’s good for basketball. It’s good for women. It’s good in general. Let me tell you why, with a little history, business, and sociology. This is not (really) about basketball.

Lest We Forget…

Invented by YMCA’s James Naismith n 1891, basketball migrated to women’s colleges (Smith) within a year. Stanford and Cal squared off in 1896 in the first women’s college final, and, in 1909, the first international women’s tournament was played in St. Petersburg. In the early days, women sometimes even played in skirts under rules that forbid running and jumping. Medical “experts” said that jumping would make a woman’s uterus fall out (uerine prolapse).

Babe Didrickson started in basketball, recruited from high school for a “pro” team, the Texas Employers Casualty Insurance company. She was paid for clerical work, though she could not type, spell, or take shorthand; women players could not be paid for playing. Her Golden Cyclones won a “national” championship in 1931. Her manager took her to a track meet in the off-season, and she found a different sport.

Women’s industrial leagues, sponsored by companies like Hanes and Sunoco thrived from the 1920-1940s (great write-up here). Hugely popular during both wars, especially across the South and Midwest, the women’s leagues were under the authority of the Amateur Athletic Union, so everyone had to be paid under the table, a la Didrickson.

Men’s Olympic basketball debuted at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, and their first pro league started in 1946. Notice the link: Olympics/professional launch. Women played extensively in college and leagues but were not granted Olympic admission until 1976. I wrote a book on this kind of stuff, if you’re interested in the details, see website. The point is that women’s competitive participation in basketball, watched by an enthusiastic substantial regional or national audience, is a lot older than people realize. It did not start last year with Caitlin Clark. Or with the Aces or the Liberty. People know about A League of their Own but not much about the El Dorado Lion Oilers.

In 1979, Ann Meyers was signed to the Indiana Pacers for a try out, for $50,000. She was, apparently, not bad, making the first cut but not the second. Few took the idea of a woman playing seriously on a men’s team. Sports writers called it a “hokey move” (SI, 1979) and suggested they should also give try outs to John Wayne or a donkey. All of this is to say that in 1979, women were playing basketball, quite well, but had so little experience in front of audiences that they were compared unfavorably to men’s players and quickly dismissed.

Inflection Point: The Other Dream Team

Still, in 1978, the mood was high. The first women’s professional basketball league (WBL) debuted. Despite enthusiasm from Title IX and women’s sports advocates, the business side for women’s leagues was difficult to pencil out, partly due to prejudice and partly because the business model–before television contracts–was hard. Men’s teams and leagues were also often on thin ice. The Montreal Expos, Seattle Supersonics, Baltimore Colts–Indianapolis Colts–Baltimore Ravens–were all teams that suffered business setbacks and moved where they could get more money. It wasn’t only a women’s thing.

The WBL folded after three years. Five more women’s basketball leagues launched and folded between 1981 and 1997. They hadn’t found the right formula yet. What they needed was international star power.

Lisa Leslie. Rebecca Lobo. Teresa Edwards. Sheryl Swoopes. Dawn Staley. These women, now coaches and commentators, graced the 1996 cover of the Olympic Issue of Sports Illustrated. Not the basketball issue; not the “women’s issue”; not the issue of what happened in 1996. The issue of what was going to happen.

That 1996 U.S. women’s basketball team is considered by many to be the best women’s team ever assembled. Team USA 1996 walloped the competition, including beating Brazil for the gold by 24 points. (Remember, basketball, international since 1909). Competition was strong then, and U.S. women coming up had no pro league to compete in, unlike the men’s Dream Team of 1992. Yet Team USA women still won the first of eight (and counting) consecutive golds.

Coming out of Atlanta, emotions were once again cresting for a women’s professional league. The six failures had taught them something. You need fantastic players and pent-up enthusiasm. But you also need financial support. The WNBA was launched in a partnership with the NBA, which meant abiding by other people’s rules and being criticized for leaning on the boys. Still, shared ownership and shared stadiums were better for the financials. The WNBA stayed viable and successful far longer than any of its predecessors.

They faced constant headwinds. Locals and basketball lovers were enthusiastic, but they had a hard time getting TV contracts. Part of that was the attitude: “People watch professional sports for high-level entertainment, and the WNBA is less entertaining than the NBA. Watching people dunking on each other is far more entertaining than watching people shoot layups.” (2021, Hawkeye article). Still! 2021!

The rise of March Madness, the college tournament, helped demonstrate that people can be interested in an “inferior” game, i.e. college. A well-contested game, played with enthusiasm, can be far more entertaining than better players who play like they don’t really care (e.g., the NBA all-star game).

The WNBA got better, but they also finally got more TV exposure. Plenty of viewers found that the games were very interesting. One recent journalist has even argued that the shorter women’s games, with fewer substitutions and fewer points, are better contested because every play means more, and every score influences the game.

Valuation

So, here we are in 2025. Because of all the hard work done by decades of wonderful players, announcers, owners, and advocates, the WNBA is finally being taken seriously. WNBA team valuations between 2022 and 2024 doubled, even before Caitlin Clark arrived. By the end of 2023, when the Valkyries franchise was announced, the league seemed to have passed an inflection point in respect.

I confess to not quite understanding why Clark gets as much press as she does (good playing? racism? enthusiastic hometown fans? she’s a nice person? a really good agent?) When her team wins any kind of national championship, which has not yet happened, I will give her more credit. She did break the rookie assist record. On the other hand, if she makes the broadcasting rights more valuable, if the media finds that they can sell ads because of her “star” quality, then all the players benefit. It’s not always about basketball.

Five hundred million (mm) dollars, the recent estimated team valuation for the Golden State Valkyries, is a big-assed number. (that’s a technical finance term) The second highest valuation of $420 mm is for the New York Liberty, the reigning champions, who are situated in a much bigger market. Clark’s Indiana Fever is at $370 mm, despite not having won a championship for decades and being in a tiny market. Notice: money does not necessarily come from winning or star players, although it can.

Perspective is useful, if you are starting to blink at these high numbers. The Dallas Cowboys are valued at $10 billion, that’s billion with a b, the LA Rams at $7.6b. The Golden State Warriors’ value is $8.8b, while the lowest NBA valued team, the Memphis Grizzlies is $3.0b. Just for jollies, note that the Yankees are valued at $7.1b, the Dodgers $4.8b. The Toronto Maple Leafs are the highest valued hockey team at $2.8b, while the Major League Soccer LA FC is $1.3b. Does anyone watch the LA FC? Has a U.S. soccer team ever won anything significant? Oh, excuse me. Has a U.S. men’s soccer team ever won anything significant? I repeat. Money does not come from winning or even good play.

Valuations are built out of revenue, with most of these teams valued at something between five and ten times their revenue streams. The sources of revenue vary by league. In football, 80% of team revenue (and valuation) comes from TV contracts. The NFL plays far fewer games with far more players, though in stadiums more than double the size. If the games were not televised, today’s teams probably couldn’t pencil out the financials based on ticket revenue because the player infrastructure is so much more costly.

Playing Fiercely with Joy

WNBA revenue, as with any sports team, comes from broadcasting rights, sponsorships, ticket sales, and merchandising. Since the broadcasting revenue has been small, compared with men’s teams, business management has had to hire the right people, get the right sponsors, and create a “product” that brings in fans.

Enter the Valkyries.

When Warriors’ owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber invested $50 million in the newest WNBA franchise in 2023, they knew there was risk and opportunity. Lacob had been a primary sponsor of the now-defunct women’s ABL, prior to the WNBA. He’s a venture capitalist who bought the Warriors when they were struggling. For the Warriors, Lacob made smart hires in management, bringing in coaches who developed Steph Curry into a GOAT and created a team-based philosophy that led to four championships. Yet he’d also presided over a women’s team that folded. Cities have lost their WNBA teams. There is always risk.

He hired Natalie Nakase to coach, the first Asian-American coach in the WNBA. At 5’2″, Nakase was a walk-on at UCLA, meaning she got in based on merit (i.e., high grades and test scores) then went to play basketball for fun rather than on scholarship. She ended up team captain. She played small pro ball in the U.S. and Germany, blew out her knee, was a well-respected assistant coach with the NBA’s LA Clippers, then clocked a few years with the championship Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA. She had the resume, although she was no household name. She decided to focus on defense first, and to expect competitiveness, rather than winning. They would have no star players to start.

This is how the expansion draft works. Golden State chose from existing players in the WNBA, but only the bottom half. Each team could protect half their players, which meant GSV had their choice of any not-best player. The names Valkyries’ management chose were not well-known. There were head-scratching moves. In the college draft, GSV selected a European player who won’t be available until next year. Another third of the roster was scheduled to leave, for weeks mid-season, to play in Eurobasket. Nakase began the year with cast-offs and temporaries, No Names. She told them not to expect to win, but they would have to try. The last expansion team in 2008 went 4-30.

At 9-7, the Valkyries thrive on defense and the no name, “next person up” philosophy. They play with joy, the hallmark of their brother team’s star, Steph Curry. But GSV is not GSW. They do have killer defense, but a sputtering offense, no stars, and too many turnovers. (And missed layups, looking at you, Monique!)

Playing with joy may be the secret weapon. Kayla Thornton, the highest scorer on the Valkyries, said that Nakase has let her play with more freedom than ever in her life. She played on national college champions; on the WNBA champion Liberty. Now, her lime green sneakers fly around the court, and she is not only known for her defense, but for the occasional “dagger” three-pointer and for thanking the crowd as often as they give her the mic. Also the hair! Love the hair!

The Pride of the Bay Area

The Valkyries sold 2000 season tickets within an hour of the announcement for expansion. After the team name, logo, and colors were announced, they sold another 8000, nearly half the stadium filled before the team even had a roster, coach, or single player. That is the last piece of this very successful puzzle. The Bay Area has three things going for it: an appreciation for women’s sports, support for existing teams, and a lot of LGBTQ fans. The last part, in the context to this new team, is no coincidence.

Out of the 150 WNBA players, 43 are openly gay. There is no other sport like this. I started rooting for the Connecticut Suns three years ago because they had a married couple in their starting line-up. No other professional team sport has ever had that. To go to a game is to see in the stands a lot of older, gay women who have always loved basketball, may have played basketball, were told to keep their private lives private when they played, back in the day. There are also plenty of straight women, and men, old and young, families, all ethnicities: textbook DEI. The connection between Bay Area Francisco Pride and this team is palpable. Drag queens sometimes do the half-time show. There are only three gay Valkyries, but it’s not about numbers. It’s about acceptance and inclusion.

The food is good, the crowd cheers loud, the players appreciate it, and sometimes you might see local royalty, like Steph Curry, Tara VanDerveer, or *gasp* Brandi Chastain! On opening night, in front of the first sell-out crowd of 18,064, the Valkyries lost by 13 to the Los Angeles Sparks. The crowd gave them a standing ovation. Almost halfway through the season, they are 9-7 and are on track to sell out every game. Their projected revenue of around $30 mm will come 80% from tickets and sponsors. Maybe they’ll make the playoffs, maybe not. Not likely to win the championship; may not do as well next year.

A good friend attending the game scoffed when I suggested some player match-ups she might want to watch: I’m not here for the basketball. I’m here for the atmosphere.

I was annoyed at first, but I think she was right. It’s not about the winning. Not about the playing, though the games are fun and lively. It’s about the legacy of women playing sports to the point where they can now play with serious joy. That is worth half a billion, easily.

Welcome to Ballhalla!