SAN FRANCISCO — Three years ago, the Golden State Valkyries were a name, a color and a $50 million check. Tonight they take the floor at Chase Center one win into the WNBA Finals, in front of a crowd they have never once failed to sell out, as the most valuable team in women’s sports.

Nobody who values sports franchises for a living disagrees. Forbes put the Valkyries at $780 million in May and called them the most valuable women’s sports team in the world. Sportico’s 2026 valuations came in at $850 million — No. 1 in the WNBA for the second straight year, and 140% more than any club in the National Women’s Soccer League. CNBC went highest, at $1 billion, making Golden State the first WNBA franchise to reach that number. The New York Liberty finished second on all three lists, at $600 million. It is not close.

A $50 million bet that paid 17 to 1

Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber were awarded the franchise in October 2023 for a $50 million expansion fee, paid over 10 years. By Sportico’s number, the team is now worth 17 times that. The league noticed: the next three expansion teams, in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, paid $250 million apiece.

The money underneath the valuations is real. The Valkyries brought in $78 million in their first season, a WNBA record and 48% more than the second-place Indiana Fever, according to Forbes and Sportico. This year they became the first women’s professional team to clear $100 million in annual revenue, and a Finals run could push them past $130 million.

“Last year wasn’t a movie premiere,” team President Jess Smith told Sportico. “It was really step one.”

Lacob thinks the appraisers are still underselling it. “We’re put at the average multiple of everyone,” he told The San Francisco Standard, “but we aren’t the average team.”

Every seat, every night

The Valkyries have sold out every regular-season home game in both of their seasons — the only franchise in league history to do it in its first two years. They averaged 18,064 fans this season and drew 397,408 in all, leading the WNBA in both for the second year running. Nearly 800,000 people have come through the doors since the first tip in May 2025.

Season tickets, held by more than 12,000 fans, sold out in April, and more than 90% have already renewed for 2027. If you want in now, you pay a nonrefundable $25 per seat to wait in line. More than 40 corporate partners have signed on, from JPMorgan Chase and Kaiser Permanente to Sephora and United Airlines. And because the same owners run the Warriors and Chase Center, CNBC’s Michael Ozanian has noted, they can sell sponsorships and suites across both teams.

A Warriors mantra, handed down

“Strength in Numbers” was the slogan of the Warriors’ dynasty, a Steve Kerr idea that former team President Rick Welts once called “a way of life, and a way of winning.” Head coach Natalie Nakase has made it the Valkyries’ too, riding a 10-player rotation to a 32-12 record and a Finals berth.

Game 1 was the depth and the star at once. Gabby Williams scored 26 points — the only Valkyrie in double figures — and her free throws with 1:18 left put Golden State ahead for good in a 68-64 win over the Atlanta Dream. Kaila Charles pulled down 10 rebounds. Kiah Stokes blocked four shots.

“Whatever happens,” Williams said afterward, “this team is gonna find a way.”

Why it matters on both sides of the Bay

When the Warriors crossed the bridge to San Francisco in 2019, plenty of Oakland took it personally. The Valkyries kept a foot in the East Bay. They practice in a 31,800-square-foot performance center in downtown Oakland — the same building the Warriors called headquarters from 1997 to 2019. “What Jess and I are building is Oakland and San Francisco,” general manager Ohemaa Nyanin said in 2024, before the team’s first season.

The money is reaching the players, too. The WNBA’s new seven-year labor deal raised the 2026 salary cap from $1.5 million to $7 million, set the maximum salary at $1.4 million and lifted the average to $583,000, with the league projecting it will top $1 million by 2032. For players who for years spent their off-seasons overseas to make a living, that is not a small thing.

The Valkyries did not invent the idea that women’s basketball is good business. They just proved it faster, and louder, than anyone else. Tonight they try to prove it on the court, too.

WNBA Finals Game 2: Dream at Valkyries, Monday, Oct. 19, 5 p.m. PT, Chase Center. TV: USA. Streaming: Peacock. Radio: 95.7 The Game, ESPN 1320. Golden State leads the series 1-0. Game 3 is Thursday, Oct. 22, in Atlanta.

Valuation and revenue figures from Forbes, Sportico and CNBC; attendance figures from the Golden State Valkyries.