The Golden State Valkyries have officially rewritten the financial history of women’s sports. According to a comprehensive report published by Sportico, the WNBA franchise has surged past the landmark figure of US$100 million in annual revenue, accomplishing this unprecedented feat in just their second season of professional competition.
This latest financial milestone arrives on the heels of a remarkable debut campaign in which the expansion franchise set a new league benchmark by generating US$78 million in revenue—outperforming the second-place Indiana Fever by an impressive 48 per cent. Sportico’s reporting indicates that the franchise’s revenue streams vastly exceeded internal and external projections this year, propelled by a stellar showing during the regular season, deep playoff contention, and aggressive commercial and sponsorship growth.
The Valkyries have proved to be pioneers from the moment they stepped onto the professional hardwood. In their inaugural season, they made WNBA history by becoming the first expansion franchise to secure a playoff berth in their debut year. Their competitive momentum has continued unabated into their sophomore campaign, where they currently sit just a single victory away from advancing to the 2026 WNBA Finals. Industry analysts and reports from Sportico suggest that if the team successfully completes a run to the championship series, their gross revenue for the year could climb even higher, potentially soaring past US$130 million.
A cornerstone of this financial and operational success has been the team’s ability to cultivate a robust and diverse commercial partner portfolio. The Valkyries currently boast more than 40 corporate partners, bringing together a mix of major global brands and targeted team-specific collaborators. Among their primary sponsors are household names such as JPMorgan Chase, Rakuten, Sephora, and United Airlines.
While several of these early corporate relationships were established through pre-existing connections with the Golden State Warriors—the WNBA team’s NBA sister franchise, which is jointly owned by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber—the Valkyries have proven highly capable of attracting independent, dedicated partners. Notable among these is lifestyle and athletic apparel brand Athleta, which signed on as the franchise’s official off-court apparel partner in September.
Further demonstrating their commercial pull, the team recently welcomed AI cloud provider Iren to their roster of sponsors. Iren’s prominent branding is featured on the Valkyries’ warm-up jerseys, integrated as a key component of a broader, lucrative deal reportedly valued at US$50 million per year. This expansive agreement also encompasses jersey patch branding for the Golden State Warriors, highlighting the powerful cross-promotional leverage shared between the ownership group’s two properties.
Despite the franchise still being in its absolute infancy, the Valkyries have successfully forged an intensely loyal and rapidly expanding fanbase in the Bay Area. This fervent support is vividly illustrated at the gate, where the team has achieved the remarkable feat of selling out every single home game across their first two seasons at the 18,064-seat Chase Center. Demand for access to the team has remained extraordinarily high, with the organization selling more than 12,000 season tickets for the 2026 campaign alone. Furthermore, Sportico noted that elite inventory, such as courtside seats, has commanded premium prices reaching up to US$1,500 per game.
This soaring popularity extends far beyond the physical confines of the arena, translating into massive digital engagement across modern media platforms. The Valkyries have captured the attention of younger, digitally native demographics, successfully surpassing 100,000 followers on TikTok while establishing themselves as the most-followed team across the entire WNBA on Threads.
The extraordinary trajectory of the franchise’s revenue growth has naturally catalyzed a dramatic surge in its overall enterprise valuation. In May, a comprehensive valuation report by Sportico estimated the Valkyries to be worth US$850 million, marking a staggering leap from the US$50 million expansion fee that owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber paid to secure the franchise in 2023. Meanwhile, financial network CNBC has valued the organization at an even higher milestone of US$1 billion, placing the WNBA franchise in rarefied air alongside major men’s professional sports teams.
These towering figures fully vindicate the bold ambitions articulated by the franchise’s leadership long before a ball was even tipped in regular-season anger. In an extensive interview with SportsPro in May 2025, Valkyries president Jess Smith laid out the organization’s uncompromising financial and operational vision.
"We will be number one and want to be number one [for revenue generation]," Smith stated at the time, outlining the ethos of the franchise. "And those are the expectations of our ownership group."
With a historic revenue milestone now firmly secured, a potential run at the 2026 WNBA Finals on the horizon, and an enterprise valuation nearing the billion-dollar mark, the Golden State Valkyries have not only met those lofty expectations but have fundamentally redefined the economic ceiling for women’s professional sports globally.
