Despite having won barely half their games and having no real standout star, your Golden State Valkyries now hold the highest valuation of any women’s pro sports team ever, and not even a month and a half after playing their first game.
Not even six weeks into their first season, your WNBA expansion team Golden State Valkyries have a mediocre record of 7-6, do not have a star player, and their top draft pick won’t even play for them this season. We suppose that’s not bad for an expansion team, yet they are hardly an elite WNBA franchise.
They are already elite from a money standpoint, though, as NBC Bay Area reports that the Valkyries are already the most valuable women’s sports franchise ever, with an estimated valuation of $500 million.
NEW @WNBA Team Valuations: The Golden State @valkyries are the first $500 million women's team in pro sports, and every WNBA team value is up more than 100% over the past 12 months. The WNBA teams are collectively worth $3.5 billion.
— Sportico (@Sportico) June 24, 2025
The latest from @kbadenhausen ⤵️ https://t.co/XXLftYmfpQ pic.twitter.com/W2kFBGk4xG
It’s no secret why, despite being a less-then-dominant team on the court. The Valkyries were the first WNBA team ever to sell 10,000 season tickets, a feat they accomplished nearly two months before playing their first game. NBC Bay Area adds that the Valkyries have already sold out every home game. And they play at the Chase Center, a legit NBA arena rather than the lesser venues at which some WNBA teams play.
These aren’t official valuations, but they come from the sports business journal Sportico, which analyzes several bottom-line factors used to create team valuations. And they found the fledgling Valkyries are already worth more than the New York Liberty, who are the league’s defending champions.
"Last month, the club tipped off its first regular-season game at Chase Center, which set a record for a single-game WNBA ticket revenue at more than $3 million, and the club already has another $3 million gate on its books," according to Sportico. "The Valkyries are selling courtside seats for an average of $1,500 per game, comparable to some NBA teams. Total 2025 revenue should hit $70 million, double what any WNBA club generated last year, and more than half of the teams in MLS [Major League Soccer]."
It’s not just the Valkyries enjoying this valuation boom, it’s leaguewide. The entrance of Caitlin Clark into the league has, on average, tripled every team in the league’s valuation. And WNBA games, by and large, are getting vastly better TV ratings than prior to Clark’s playing in the league.
But the whole thing may be a mirage, or at least, these gigantic valuations may not last. WNBA players are wildly underpaid given the TV ratings they now generate, and WNBA games now get about 75% of the audience size that man’s NBA games get. The league’s collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of this season (mid- to late October) and the players will be demanding an enormous raise.
So right now, the WNBA is powered by incredibly cheap labor. And it’s going to be a pretty touchy issue when these players start expecting salaries that are 75% of what the men make, considering their TV ratings are 75% of what the men' s teams get. (Though their season is considerably shorter.) That could lead to a work stoppage or even a player’s strike, and one where the players hold more of the cards.
Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 22: Kaitlyn Chen #2 of the Golden State Valkyries celebrates her basket and foul with teammates against the Connecticut Sun in the second quarter at Chase Center on June 22, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
