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The Valkyries' **$1 billion** valuation resets WNBA ownership math and forces mark-to-market conversations across the league's 12 existing franchises.
$1 billion
making them the first WNBA franchise to reach ten…
$100 million
in a completed transaction
$50 million
expansion fee to the league in May 2023
20x
what Lacob and Guber paid 18 months ago
The Golden State Valkyries are now worth $1 billion, making them the first WNBA franchise to reach ten figures. The expansion team, which begins play in May 2025, hit the mark in recent private-market conversations between ownership and potential limited partners, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. No WNBA team has ever been valued above $100 million in a completed transaction.
The valuation is not from a closed sale. It reflects pricing in ongoing discussions around minority stake sales and credit-facility structuring tied to the new Chase Center lease and local media arrangements. The Valkyries are majority-owned by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, who also control the Golden State Warriors. They paid a $50 million expansion fee to the league in May 2023. The franchise has no revenue yet.
What matters is the multiple. A $1 billion price implies the Valkyries are worth roughly 20x what Lacob and Guber paid 18 months ago, before hiring a coach, signing a player, or selling a ticket. That reset is not about the Valkyries' operations—it is about what institutional allocators now believe women's basketball franchises will be worth in 2028. Private equity groups and family offices are modeling WNBA media rights at $200-$300 million annually starting in 2026, up from $60 million today. They are pricing in sold-out arenas, regional streaming carve-outs, and jersey patch deals that approach MLS rates. The Valkyries, with a Chase Center lease that splits no gate with an NBA tenant and a Bay Area sponsor base that pays tech-market CPMs, sit at the top of that model.
The comps are tightening. Orlando sold a majority stake in its WNBA team for roughly $55 million in 2023. Toronto's expansion fee for a 2026 team was $115 million. Portland's, announced this winter, was $125 million. The Valkyries' $1 billion mark is not outlier optimism—it is Bay Area scarcity pricing meeting a national asset class that didn't exist three years ago. Lacob and Guber are not sellers, but they are pricing the option. That number circulates.
The effects show up fast. Expect minority investors in other WNBA teams to begin mark-to-market conversations with their GPs in Q1. Expect family offices that passed on Orlando at $55 million to start calling Portland ownership. Expect the league's next expansion discussions—Philadelphia, Denver, Nashville have all been mentioned—to begin at $150 million minimum. The $1 billion figure is a ceiling only until someone builds the Valkyries' model in another top-ten market and calls it a floor.
Watch for the Valkyries' head coach hire, expected by late February, and their first jersey patch sponsor, which will set a WNBA record and likely come from fintech or enterprise SaaS. The team's season-ticket deposit list is already past 15,000 names. Those names have not yet paid. When they do, the $1 billion number becomes a comp, not a talking point.
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