The Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s first expansion team in 17 years, played their first game for 18,000 fans at the Chase Center in San Francisco last Friday. Way up in the nosebleeds of that record-breaking crowd were Zack Boyden and Alicia Gonzalez.

“Everyone there had been waiting for a long time for this,” said Gonzalez. “That’s what it felt like.”

They say the arena was loudest when Valkyries guard Julie Vanloo led the team on a third quarter run. 

“It was invigorating,” Gonzales said. 

“We weren’t even winning,” Boyden added. “And it was like, we’re coming back!” 

The Valkyries did not come back. They went down 84 to 67 to the LA Sparks. But Boyden and Gonzalez didn’t really care. They said getting to call themselves day one Valkyries fans was worth the three-hour drive from Sacramento and the roughly $800 the couple said they spent on the night out. That includes $275 each for two of the cheap seats plus gas, parking and some very expensive nachos. 

“It felt like we got our money’s worth,” Boyden said. 

This couple came to their Valkyries fandom in different ways. Gonzalez has been hooked on the WNBA long enough to remember when it wasn’t cool. 

“Nobody cared,” she said. “I remember no one caring. People were like, ‘The WNBA is going to fold.’” 

Gonzalez’s beloved Sacramento Monarchs did fold in 2009. She was devastated, but kept following her favorite players. Gonzalez could never really get her now husband Boyden into women’s basketball (he was more of a Rugby guy) until 2024 when the Caitlin Clark hype got his attention. But they’re both all-in on this new team and hope to get their 1-year-old daughter hooked on the Valkyries, too. 

It’s a tough time to be launching a new business in this economy marked by pessimism and uncertainty. Unless, of course, that business is a new WNBA franchise. In addition to the Golden State Valkyries, teams based in Portland and Toronto will join the league next year. 

“It feels like people are just ready to commit,” said Jess Smith, president of the Valkyries, who doesn’t take full credit for getting people to drop hundreds on the team before it ever played a game. 

“The consumers are the one’s driving this. Make no mistake,” Smith said. “They are the ones driving that, ‘We want this product, we are watching this product, give me more of it.’”

The team’s fierce branding, based on warrior women of Norse mythology, and viral merch definitely helps. Like exclusive “founding guard” letterman jackets just for 2025 season ticket holders. Smith wants the team’s first wave of fans to feel like they’re getting in on the ground floor of a movement. 

“It’s really about wanting to be part of something from day one,” Smith said. “[Women’s sports fans] really want to commit dollars and time into places and things that they believe are building a better tomorrow.” 

The WNBA’s newest teams won’t have superstar players to market around. They can’t use legacy or rivalry or nostalgia to entice fans. So they’re selling community. 

“I think that a lot of people are hungry for that,” said Joanna Schwartz, a sports marketing expert at Georgia College & State University. “It's something that people don't get from men's sports, especially that women don't get from men's sports.” 

Schwartz said women’s sports fans of all genders are driven by their values in a way that men’s sports fans aren’t, and the WNBA’s expansion teams can lean into that while they don’t have much basketball to market initially. 

“That's part of the trick for teams that are going to be below 500,” Schwartz said. 

In its 29 seasons, the WNBA has had moments of hype and expansion followed by contraction. Six of its franchises have folded. But Schwartz says today’s teams are operating in a different environment. They don’t have to convince audiences that women’s basketball is worth watching.

“There's pent-up demand. You know, people want this and they don’t have it,” Schwartz said. 

Just look at Portland’s expansion team. It’s sold 7,500 season ticket deposits ahead of its 2026 debut before it has a single player on its roster or even a name.