The Bay Area’s new WNBA team unveiled their name and logo on Tuesday. The team will be called the Golden State Valkyries and will start play in 2025 with games at Chase Center. The Valkyries have already sold more than 7,500 season tickets, and are affiliated with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
“It’s a beautiful nod to the Golden State Warriors, but also is uniquely our own,” team president Jess Smith said. “What’s so incredibly powerful about it is first and foremost is what a valkyrie is. A valkyrie doesn’t act alone, it’s a group moving things forward. As we think through what we’re building here at Golden State, it’s on the court and off the court. To make the impossible, possible like the Bay Area does.”
Fans had been pushing for the Valkyries names for the last few months, and Smith said she had been aware of the campaign.
“It’s been pretty constant and that’s really beautiful,” Smith said of the fan support. “This is the Bay’s team and to be able to give them what they are asking for and give it in the way we’re going to is phenomenal.”
The color scheme for the team will be Valkyrie purple.
“There are lots of different purples and mythologies that come with it,” Smith said. “That key violet color is something that’s uniquely ours. We think it’s powerful enough to represent the Valkyries … It’s regal and powerful and something we’re really excited to identify with.”
Smith said that the team’s logo had been carefully thought out.
“The sword that’s right down the center. On the flip side of that you got the bridge connecting the bay. That’s very important for us that we’re unifying in a big way. We are going to have a home in Oakland and San Francisco,” Smith said. “We view this as an incredible time for the WNBA and something we’ll all reflect back on as the 13th team came into the league and what that looked like at that moment in time.”
The franchise was announced in October 2023, and Smith said the team would be connected with the Warriors, who have won four NBA titles in the last 10 years, while maintaining their own identity.
“We’re also building a legacy of our own and something that is distinctively ours,” she said.
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Reports have recently that Toronto will be awarded an WNBA franchise in the coming months, with the team starting play in 2026.
