Under the bright lights of Chase Center, a new team is fueling a surge in popularity for women’s basketball, setting the stage for it to thrive in the Bay Area.
This 2025 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) season marks the beginning of a new era for women’s basketball in the Bay Area. This is due to one team in particular, the Golden State Valkyries. In 2024, the WNBA announced the addition of three new teams. Portland, Toronto and San Francisco are all homes to these new and upcoming teams.
The popularity of the WNBA has taken off over recent years with players such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers all earning themselves a spot on one of the 13 teams, including the original twelve and the Valkyries. This is the first time the Bay Area will have its very own women’s professional basketball team, but they have been home to a few very successful women’s college basketball teams from Stanford and University of California, Berkeley. The recognition of women’s basketball has been dying down in the Bay Area ever since it peaked when Stanford won a national championship in 2021, but the Valkyries are looking to bring back the spark. They will now be able to help women’s basketball rise in popularity in the Bay Area.
With the official beginning of the WNBA season coming up on Friday, May 16, the Valkyries preseason games have been putting up strong attendance numbers with over 17,000 fans showing up to their first game. Senior Chase Hetherington is planning to make her way to Chase Center a few times this season to support the team.
“I’m really excited to watch [the Valkyries] this season,” Hetherington said. “I know that it might be a rough season for them because it’s their first year, but I’m excited to see how [the team] grows and to see the players on the team.”
The Valkyries’ roster only contains players from the expansion draft and trades, meaning none of the players they drafted in the 2025 WNBA draft earned a spot on their roster. Even though they did not gain any new components to their team from the draft, they snagged one of the most influential players in the league: Kate Martin. Martin spent five years at Iowa playing alongside Caitlin Clark and appeared in two final four games. She was drafted by the Las Vegas Aces as the 18th overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, despite having doubts about being drafted at all. Martin has sparked social media fame while at the Aces so having her in the Bay Area is a perfect way to promote women’s basketball.
“I am really excited about [the addition] of Kate Martin,” Hetherington said. “I think she will be a really good addition to the team.”
Even though the Valkyries are bringing fame to Bay Area women’s basketball, it is not to say that we haven’t produced many successful women’s basketball players. One notable player is Sabrina Ionescu who is originally from Walnut Creek, California who went on to have one of the greatest college basketball careers at the University of Oregon. Now that the WNBA has expanded to the Bay Area, I believe that the Valkyries will be an inspiration for young girls to play basketball. Iounescu and many others have created the positivity that surrounds girls basketball. Gabby Giusti plays basketball through school as well as outside of school, where she plays for the same team Ionescu played for as she grew up.
“I really like [the Valkyries] and I think they are doing a good job of promoting [basketball] to young girls,” Giusti said.
With a new team comes new fans, and the Bay Area has many passionate basketball players who have supported our professional teams in years past. The success of the Golden State Warriors has paved a way for basketball in the Bay Area, which the Valkyries have the opportunity to follow.
“I usually see men’s sports on TV but they are also doing a good job of putting women’s sports on TV, because it inspires young girls to want to [play] basketball,” Giusti said.
