WNBA basketballs at Chase Center on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, in San Francisco, Calif. The Women’s National Basketball Association announced the Golden State Warriors have been awarded an expansion franchise for the 2025 season. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO — The WNBA is coming to the Bay Area.
That isn’t just a gift to women and women’s sports fans, but to everyone who loves basketball and high-level competition.
And hopefully, it’s a gift to everyone who loves winning.
Starting 14 years ago, Warriors CEO Joe Lacob built a new brand around the NBA’s most moribund franchise. Under Lacob and friends’ ownership, the Warriors were going to be winners, and they weren’t going to wait their turn or be apologetic about it.
Lacob promised a title within five years when he bought the Dubs.
Thursday, he made the same promise in announcing the WNBA’s 13th franchise — a team to be paid for, built, and run by the Warriors’ now-massive organization.
I like his thinking.
I would love to be able to write about how meaningful it is to me to have a WNBA team in the Bay. I suppose I could provide some self-aggrandizing commentary telling you that I’m the husband of a woman and the father of a little girl and this is a monumental day for the Kurtenbachs and every Bay Area family like us.
That’s not what I’m thinking.
Representation is obviously important, particularly for young girls around the Bay. I know plenty of people who can cite big, profound reasons for their excitement for the WNBA coming to the Bay. They’ve been waiting a long time for this, and for them, I’m thrilled.
But I, an average guy who lives in the suburbs, am excited for this team because, well, I like basketball.
More specifically, I want to watch the best of the best play this game, and the WNBA is unquestionably the best of the best.
So it’s my hope (and Lacob’s) that the Warriors will now provide elite-level hoops to this market year-round.
Of course, there will be naysayers of the women’s game. Let them sound like idiots. Anyone who has watched the WNBA lately knows of its quality.
And some will claim that creating this team is some elaborate PR play for the Warriors — an elaborate plea for goodwill in a progressive market.
But let me tell you, there are a lot cheaper ways to do that sort of thing. Sportico reported that the Warriors will pay a $50 million expansion fee, though it will likely be broken down into smaller, yearly payments.
No, this is a business play for Lacob and Co.
The Chase Center sits empty for too many days in the summer. This team — whatever it ends up being called — should change that.
(If there is a PR component to all of this it’s in calling this the “Bay’s team” because it will practice at the Warriors’ old facility in Oakland.)
But this new team has to win to be successful. This market might be diverse and progressive and have everything you need for a WNBA team to be a hit — particularly with the A’s likely to exit the Bay’s summer sports scene soon — but winning is the only marketing that carries weight these days.
And winning is still the preeminent value to sports fans in the Bay.
Lacob and his ownership cartel deserve the benefit of the doubt.
They built the Warriors into the most valuable franchise in basketball, the third-most valuable sports team in the world, per Forbes. That rise came because the Warriors won titles, including one within five years of Lacob and Co. taking over the team. Then they kept winning.
I want to see this WNBA team become the dominant force in the league, the same way the Warriors became the dominant force in the NBA. Let’s not just have a team in San Francisco, let’s have the best one.
The WNBA and women’s sports are on an upward trajectory for one unassailable reason — it’s high-quality entertainment.
So yes, having a WNBA team in the Bay — whether good or bad — will automatically appeal to some.
But having a winning team appeals to all.
This is a moment for women’s sports. This is an incredible opportunity for the Bay.
Here’s hoping the Warriors take full advantage.
Originally published at Dieter Kurtenbach