Story
Nov 2, 2026
Valkyries Turn a $50 Million Expansion Bet Into a WNBA Title in Record Time
Golden State’s Valkyries went from an expansion announcement to WNBA champions in less than 37 months, pairing a bold business launch with a Game 7 triumph. Now San Francisco is preparing to celebrate a team that rapidly became a regional force.
Joe Lacob’s wager began on Oct. 5, 2023, when the Warriors ownership group secured a WNBA expansion franchise for San Francisco. There was no name, roster, coach or front office yet—only a $50 million license and an ambition to build a standalone force rather than a Warriors side project.1
The organization moved quickly. Jess Smith, Ohemaa Nyanin and coach Natalie Nakase shaped a violet-and-black identity, assembled players discarded elsewhere and made defense the club’s calling card. The business momentum was just as startling: the Valkyries sold out 44 regular-season home games across their first two seasons, surpassed 12,000 season tickets this year and became the first women’s sports franchise valued at $1 billion, according to the account of their rise.1
That commercial success carried a broader point for the people on the floor. After Golden State reached the playoffs in its inaugural season, it posted a 32-12 record in its second campaign and swept through a postseason path that included Dallas, defending champion Las Vegas and Atlanta. Veteran Tiffany Hayes framed the achievement bluntly: “This is what happens when you invest in women’s sports.”2
The run culminated on Halloween night, when the Valkyries beat the Dream 68-63 in the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history. Down six at halftime, Golden State found its answer in Gabby Williams, whose 28 second-half points earned her game MVP honors. Nakase, the first female coach of color to win a WNBA championship, said the victory belonged to people who had been “underrated, misunderstood.”2
The result delivered a title just 17 months, two weeks and one day after the Valkyries played their first game—the fastest championship ascent for a North American professional team, according to the report.2 It also shifted the celebration beyond Chase Center. Mayor Daniel Lurie said the two-year-old franchise had been “taking the sports world by storm,” while transit officials briefly posted plans for a Wednesday noon parade from the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero to Second Street, though the city had not formally confirmed them.3