Source: Julio Aguilar / Getty
The WNBA‘s popularity has grown immensely over the last few years, and now the league is ready to turn it up a notch.
The women’s league has announced that a California squad will join the sisterhood thanks to an expansion team headed to the Bay Area in 2025.
The first sports team that comes to mind when mentioning the Bay Area is the Golden State Warriors, and it’s that franchise’s owners behind the latest WNBA push.
Warriors chairman Joe Lacob has a winning pedigree, having led the Warriors to four rings in less than a decade, and now looks to bring that success to the women’s side of professional basketball.
“We’re coming in here, number one, to win. Number two, we want to see this league and women’s basketball grow, and we hope to be a big part of it,” Lacob told ESPN. “We think it’s a watershed event for us to come in and commit to it in a big way. We’re going to bring all of our resources. We can put this machine to work, and we’re going to do that.”
Aside from hopefully winning more rings, the Warriors’ business acumen is also top-notch and an aspect Lacob hopes to bring over to the WNBA, hopefully creating a big payday and raking in more dough at San Francisco’s Chase Center.
He’s already saying that his WNBA team will bring in the most revenue and hopefully use the Warriors ‘ resources like facilities and sponsorship dollars to help the W grow.
As for the name of the newly minted franchise… Lacob doesn’t have one yet, and it may stay that way while he insists logos and uniforms will be developed. According to ESPN, the team will simply be known as Golden State for now.
History repeats itself as Lacob got his start in the franchise-owning business back in the 90s as a part owner of the ABL’s San Jose Lasers, which was defunct three years later.
Basketball culture in the Bay Area has been intense as it is the home of Stanford and UC Berkeley’s lauded women’s basketball teams.
Lacob isn’t the only NBA owner putting money towards the WNBA. Phoenix Suns and Mercury Owner Mat Ishbia announced today he’ll invest more than $100 million in a new practice facility and headquarters for the Mercury.
Golden State’s WNBA franchise marks the league’s 13th team and first since 2008 when the Atlanta Dream joined.
See how hyped X (formerly known as Twitter) is about the expansion below
WNBA Announces New “Golden State” Team Headed To The Bay Area In 2025 was originally published on cassiuslife.com
