The Golden State Valkyries are worth $1 billion after one season of play, according to CNBC's 2026 WNBA franchise valuations released this week. The expansion franchise, which tipped off in May 2025, becomes the first women's professional basketball team to cross ten figures and the fastest North American expansion franchise to do so in any major league since MLS began tracking comparable metrics in 1996.
The Valkyries entered the league alongside Toronto in the WNBA's most recent expansion round, paying a reported $50 million entry fee. Controlling owner Joe Lacob — who also holds the Golden State Warriors — structured the franchise inside the Warriors' existing Chase Center lease and basketball operations infrastructure, eliminating the typical expansion overhead for venue deals and back-office buildout. Season-ticket deposits exceeded $6 million in the first 48 hours. The team drew an average announced attendance of 18,340 across seventeen home dates in 2025, third in the league behind Las Vegas and New York. Broadcast windows on NBC Sports Bay Area averaged a 0.7 local rating, outperforming the Warriors' late-season games and most A's telecasts in the market's final baseball summer.
The valuation arrives as the WNBA negotiates its next media-rights cycle, expected to close before the 2027 season. League sources expect a domestic package in the range of $200 million to $250 million annually, up from the current $60 million ESPN/CBS deal that runs through 2027. Amazon has made a formal offer. Apple held two rounds of meetings in March. The Valkyries' local rating and demo skew — 62% of viewers are under 45, per Nielsen — give the league a Bay Area proof case when it enters those rooms. The team also carries no legacy debt and benefits from Chase Center's existing premium inventory, which the Warriors have repriced upward for Valkyries games; courtside seats for playoff rounds were listed at $1,850, comparable to Warriors' first-round pricing.
For context, the New York Liberty — the league's previous valuation leader at an estimated $780 million in CNBC's 2025 rankings — took nine seasons under current ownership (Joe Tsai bought the team in 2019) to reach that mark. The Las Vegas Aces, valued at approximately $740 million, required six years and a title. The Valkyries did neither, finishing 12-28 in year one and missing the playoffs by four games. What they did have: a market with $150 billion in household income within a 30-mile radius of Chase Center, a controlling owner whose net worth exceeds $3 billion, and an NBA sibling that generated $765 million in revenue last season, per Sportico.
The comp everyone is watching now is Charlotte. The Hornets, valued at $3 billion in the most recent Forbes NBA list, sit in a metro roughly one-fifth the GDP of the Bay Area but carry similar operational leverage from shared arena deals and sponsor crossover. If the Valkyries reach $3 billion by year five — the pace their current trajectory implies — the spread between them and the league median (currently $190 million) will be wider than the spread between the Warriors and the lowest-valued NBA team. That creates tension for revenue sharing, luxury tax proposals, and the 2028 CBA negotiation, all of which league offices are modeling now.
Watch for sponsor announcements in Q2. The Valkyries have four jersey patch slots still open, and three Fortune 500 companies based in the Bay Area — Salesforce, Meta, Visa — have held conversations about primary kit deals in the $8 million to $12 million range, per two people familiar. Also watch the coaching market: Lacob met with Spurs assistant Becky Hammon twice in April, and the Valkyries' current coach, Natalie Nakase, has one year left on her deal.
The league has twelve teams. One is now worth more than some NHL franchises. The new expansion floor is no longer $50 million. It's whatever Joe Tsai or Steve Ballmer will pay to not be left out of the next window.
The takeaway
The Valkyries hit **$1B** in one season using Warriors infrastructure and Bay Area density — a comp that terrifies small-market owners ahead of 2028 CBA talks.
wnbavaluationgolden state valkyriesexpansionwomen's sportsmedia rights
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