The expansion WNBA team the Golden State Valkyries are already setting sales records despite not even having played a game yet, but they play their first real regular season game tonight at the Chase Center.

The wait is over for Bay Area women’s basketball fans. It was way back in October 2023 when we learned that San Francisco was getting a WNBA team. Since then, it was announced that they would be called the Golden State Valkyries, and their inaugural-season schedule came out in December.

That schedule finally starts tonight, as your Golden State Valkyries take on the Los Angeles Sparks in their first-ever official season game Friday night at the Chase Center at 7 pm. (The Valkyries and the Sparks played a preseason game at the Chase Center last Tuesday, as well.)

The TV broadcast is on some network called ION, which may or may not be part of your streaming or cable package. (It’s apparently available on Fubo). Starting with this Wednesday’s 7 pm game against the Washington Mystics, most games will be carried live on KPIX’s quasi-station KPIX+, which is Channel 44 on the air, might be part of your cable package, and is available with a paid YouTube TV subscription.

The Valkyries will finally get a real TV game (well, local TV) with a 4 pm Tuesday, May 27 game against the star-studded, defending champion New York Liberty. That game’s on KPIX. Then they’ll play their first true national TV game on Saturday, June 7 at 12 noon against the Las Vegas Aces at the Chase Center, which will be carried on ABC.    

It was just announced this week that all Valkyries games will be on the radio on 95.7 The Game, which is also available on the Audacy app.

As of press time for this post, the minimum get-in price for a single ticket to tonight’s game at the Chase Center is $91. That price has been fluctuating throughout the morning. Meanwhile, courtside seats are going for as much as $4,865.

Valkyries season ticket sales have been incredibly brisk. A Reddit post tracking Valkyries season ticket prices shows that those have been going for anywhere between $12,650 and $34,500.

And as mentioned in the headline here, SFGate reports that the Valkyries have the most expensive single-game ticket of the WNBA regular season. That is not tonight's game, but instead their Thursday, June 19 game against the league’s top superstar Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. Tickets for that game are going for an “average sale price” of $519, according to Vivid Seats’ “WNBA Loyalty Report”released this week. That game is at the Chase Center, and if you’d rather save your money, it will also be on regular KPIX and streaming on Amazon Prime.

So team owner Joe Lacob and the Golden State Valkyries are definitely going to make their money this year. But will this team be any good?

The team marketing department seems to think that their big stars will be last year’s EuroCup Women’s Finals MVP Carla Leite and Caitlin Clark’s former Iowa teammate Kate Martin.

But there’s been plenty of head-scratching that the Valkyries have already cut two of their three WNBA draft picks from last month’s draft, including Kaitlyn Chen, who’s fresh off winning the national championship with Paige Bueckers and UConn. The only remaining player they drafted is their top pick, 19-year-old Lithuanian prospect Justė Jocytė, who is off in Europe playing for Lithuania’s national team, and will not join the Valkyries until mid-season (July) at the earliest.    

Update: The Chronicle reported Friday afternoon that Jocytė will not play for the Valkyries at all this season, but she does plan to join the team for the 2026 season.

This has led to (possibly correct) speculation that the Valkyries are purposefully tanking this season, because they already know they’re going to turn a profit, and they want to position themselves to get college stars Lauren Betts or Olivia Miles at the top of next year’s draft. Or they may just want to save cap space, as nearly every WNBA all-star will be a free agent once this season ends.

Tanking or not, this first Valkyries season will certainly be fun for the fans. A separate SFGate report points out that the Valkyries, who like all WNBA teams have a large following among lesbians, have adopted the fan motto “Put your V’s Up.”

People, that is quite obviously a double-entendre meant to amuse the queer community. But it also seems clear that whatever the team does this season, fans of the V’s are going to eat it up.

Related: SF’s WNBA Team Now Has a Name and Logo: They’re the Golden State Valkyries [SFist]

Image: PHOENIX, ARIZONA - MAY 11: Kayla Thornton #5 of the Golden State Valkyries dribbles the ball around Sevgi Uzun #10 of the Phoenix Mercury during the first quarter at PHX Arena on May 11, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Aryanna Frank/Getty Images)