The Golden State Valkyries have surpassed 20,000 season ticket deposits, according to a press release. The new total builds upon their initial record in late July, when the WNBA expansion franchise took in more than 15,000 deposits, the most for a women’s sports team in the U.S. before its first season.
The Valkyries will begin play in 2025, making them the first new WNBA franchise since the Atlanta Dream joined the league in 2008. Golden State will be followed by new teams in Toronto and Portland in 2026. Multiple cities are in consideration for a 16th franchise, with Allen & Co. advising the league.
In July, Valkyries CEO Jess Smith, the former head of revenue for NWSL’s Angel City FC, told Sportico that she believed no other new women’s sports team had come close to 10,000 deposits before her team set the mark. “It is nice, to be very candid, to be a part of the ownership group that owns the facility [you play in],” Smith said in a video interview at the time. “That’s something we will certainly have an advantage from [in terms of] availability which we hope to see replicated throughout the league.”
Season ticket deposits cost $25 per seat—”Secure your spot in the Founding Guard!,” says the team’s website. Based on the new tally, the Valkyries drew at least $500,000 in revenue from deposits alone.
While Golden State has not played an official game yet, it’s been active in setting building blocks for the basketball and business sides of the franchise.
In October, the team hired former Las Vegas Aces assistant coach Natalie Nakase as its first head coach. Nakase won two WNBA titles with the Aces as part of Becky Hammon’s staff and worked as a team scout before joining the bench. She was part of the Los Angeles Clippers’ staff for a decade prior to her time in Las Vegas.
Golden State will participate in an expansion draft in December, where it will pick from a pool of players unprotected by the 12 other teams (those teams can keep up to six players away from the Valkyries). In April, the Valkyries will pick fifth in the 2025 WNBA Draft, more than likely keeping them out of the Paige Bueckers sweepstakes.
In September, JPMorgan Chase signed a multiyear sponsorship with the team, as its Chase Freedom brand will be on the team’s jerseys. It’s a natural extension of a partnership that the financial giant has with the Warriors—it has a 20-year naming rights agreement for the home arena, Chase Center, that opened in San Francisco in 2019. Although the Valkyries are headquartered in Oakland, the longtime former home city of the Warriors, they will also play their home games at Chase Center.
As a nod to the relationship between the teams and JPMorgan Chase, the company offered a free Valkyries varsity jacket to anyone who made their season ticket deposit with a Chase credit or debit card.
(This story has been updated with info on the cost of a Valkyries season ticket deposit.)
