WNBA Team in the Bay: A Slam Dunk for Bay Area Basketball

The Bay Area will soon be home to the WNBA’s first new team in over a decade, officials from the league announced Thursday.

The new professional women’s basketball team is set to begin playing games at Chase Center beginning in 2025. It will be part of the Golden State Warriors franchise, but the team’s official name and brand has yet to be confirmed.

“We have been interested in a WNBA franchise for several years, due in part to the rich history of women’s basketball in the Bay Area, and believe now is the ideal time to execute that vision and build upon the legacy,” said Warriors Co-Executive Chairman and CEO Joe Lacob in a press announcement on Thursday.

While the team will play its games at the San Francisco Warriors facility, their practice venue and business operations headquarters will be at the Warriors’ Oakland facility, where the men’s team practiced from 1997–2019.

Season tickets for the new WNBA team’s 2025 season are already available.

But it will still be many months before the team fills its 12 roster spots and nails down a timeline for practices. After the WNBA finals, which kick off this weekend, the league will have a draft lottery followed by an expansion draft to pull in more players to the league.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert called the Bay Area a “hub for women’s sports,” citing successful collegiate programs at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the University of San Francisco.

“This is partially to give new opportunities to that next generation coming out of the NCAA,” Engelbert said at Thursday’s press conference. “The depth of the talent in this league has never been better. This is a very good problem to have.”

The commissioner confirmed rumors that the WNBA is looking to add a 14th team by 2025, and that she has had conversations with leaders in Denver, Portland, Toronto, Sacramento and Philadelphia.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed celebrated the new team alongside the commissioner and Warriors executives.

“This is just one step further to making sure that the public understands and realizes the value of San Francisco,” Breed told reporters. “It’s a beacon of hope for the next generation and a big step forward for women.”

Basketball fans and local government leaders have long been pushing for the WNBA team. In September 2022, Oakland’s Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan introduced a resolution urging the league to make Oakland the home for its newest team.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao was invited but could not attend Thursday’s press conference, according to Brandon Schneider, chief operating officer for the Warriors.

The WNBA team joins a growing list of women’s sports teams in the Bay Area, including the recently-launched second-tier women’s soccer team, the Oakland Soul, and a professional women’s soccer team, Bay FC, which will begin playing in 2024.

Meanwhile, the NFL Raiders left Oakland in 2019 and the city’s baseball team, the A’s, have expressed intentions to leave as well.

“We’re the Bay’s team,” Schneider said Thursday at the press briefing when pressed about the organization’s presence in Oakland. “We will have one of the best practice facilities in the WNBA,” in Oakland, he said.

The Bay Area expansion will be the WNBA’s 13th team and marks the league’s first expansion since 2008 with the Atlanta Dream. The Bay Area has never had a professional women’s basketball team, and Sacramento’s WNBA team, the Monarchs, folded in 2009.

Officials did not disclose exactly how much the franchise expansion cost to secure, but Engelbert said more than any deal in the league’s nearly 26-year history.

“Women’s basketball and women’s sports in general have had a big upswing that’s different than it was five or 10 years ago,” Lacob told reporters at a press conference. “It’s a very different time. The league is poised to take off in a different way. We are ready, they are ready.”

Women’s basketball saw record-breaking viewership in the 2023 regular season. The WNBA finals are taking place this weekend, when the New York Liberty will play off against the 2022 champions, the Las Vegas Aces.

Warriors point guard Steph Curry posted a video to social media saying he’s thrilled for the new women’s team. “Can’t wait to see y’all thrive at the highest level,” Curry said. “Let’s get it!”