The Golden State Valkyries are barely into their WNBA life, and already they’re forcing a rethink about what success looks like in the league.
In just their second season, the expansion club has turned Chase Center into a nightly pressure cooker. During their inaugural year, the Valkyries averaged 18,064 fans per home game, matching the Warriors’ average in the same building. Before this season even tipped off, they had already moved more than 12,000 season tickets, a sharp jump from the more than 10,000 they sold in their first year in 2025.
That kind of demand has made the 2023 expansion fee look like a bargain. Golden State paid $50 million to get into the league, and that cost was already recouped after their first season ended. The team’s 2025 revenue reached $78 million, a number that underlines just how fast the operation has taken off.
The rise is even more striking given the wider unease around the WNBA lately, with some observers wondering whether off-court issues might dent sales. The Valkyries have answered that concern with packed seats and steady growth. Their games are filling the arena without much heavy marketing, and the crowd size makes one thing clear: this is a real draw, not a novelty.
The league’s expansion picture has changed along with it. Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia are set to join the WNBA, and each of those new teams has agreed to pay a $250 million expansion fee, far above what Golden State paid in 2023.
On the court, the Valkyries are backing up the buzz. They sit second in the regular season at 27-11, and their fan base has quickly become one of the most passionate in the league. The Warriors’ footprint helped create the platform, but the Valkyries are building something of their own.
In Other News...
Yaxel Lendeborg Just Got The Perfect Rookie Year Motivation
ESPNs latest Rookie of the Year poll gave Cam Boozer the edge in a crowded first-year class, and it also left Golden State rookie Yaxel Lendeborg outside the top five. For a player who arrived as the 11th pick and has already looked like one of the Warriors more polished young pieces in Summer League, that kind of early omission can serve as fuel. Lendeborg has been part of a promising start in Golden State, helping push the roster to a Summer League championship and giving the franchise a glimpse of a rookie who seems eager to carve out a real role.
The added wrinkle is a budding competition with Boozer, who got the national nod and already met Lendeborg on the floor this summer. Lendeborg said the matchup gave him motivation to prove the projection wrong, and the Warriors will likely enjoy that edge if it travels beyond July. For a team always looking for young players who bring both production and a chip on their shoulder, this is the sort of under-the-radar rivalry worth watching as the season approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Dynasty Nearly Started With One Veterans Warning
Before the Warriors became the leagues defining dynasty, there was a real question hanging over the franchise after a painful 2014 playoff exit about whether the group had already reached its ceiling. Former executive Bob Myers recently revisited that moment on a podcast with Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, describing how one veteran around the team saw the disappointment differently, reading it as proof the core was close rather than broken.
The warning mattered because the next step was not obvious at the time, and the temptation to rework the roster would have been easy to understand. Instead, the Warriors stayed the course, and the season that followed became the start of a championship run that changed the franchises history, with that veteran eventually stepping away as the dynasty was taking shape. [Read more 🡒]
Bob Myers Just Reminded Warriors Fans What Golden State Lost
Bob Myers spent years at the center of the Warriors rise, and even in a new chapter with the Philadelphia 76ers, he still sounds like someone looking back on a run that defined an era in Golden State. The former general manager was a key architect of four championships, helping draft foundational pieces and bringing in Steve Kerr to guide a team that became one of the NBAs modern standards.
In a recent interview, Myers talked about his tenure with the franchise and the part he says he misses most from those years, which is the part no front-office title can really replace. It is a reminder that for all the trophies and roster moves, the bond with Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala was a big part of what made the whole thing work, and why the separation still carries some weight. [Read more 🡒]