Record ticket sales and big brand energy

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Jess Smith: Regular season WNBA games are getting the same ratings as some postseason games with some of the top men’s leagues here in the US. That can’t be ignored anymore, right?

So the ratings are there, the networks are there, the ad dollars are there, the expansion teams are there, the venues are there, but most importantly, the fans are there. So what I’m seeing behind the scenes and in front of the scenes, this is just the beginning, but it’s not just the beginning like it was five years ago.

Bob Safian: That’s Jess Smith, President of the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s latest expansion team. As the WNBA season reaches its midway break ahead of tomorrow’s All-Star game, I was eager to learn from Jess how the Valkyries have quickly built a brand identity in their inaugural season, breaking season ticket records, surpassing expectations on and off the court, and setting a template for future expansion teams.

We dig into the business impact of Caitlin mania, the Valkyries’ relationship with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and critical lessons Jess has learned from a career that spans Major League Baseball, the NHL, Major League Soccer, the NWSL, and now the WNBA. So let’s get to it. I’m Bob Safian, and this is Rapid Response.

[THEME MUSIC]

I’m Bob Safian. I’m here with Jess Smith, President of the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries. Jess, thanks for being here.

SMITH: Thanks for having me.

Copy LinkBuilding a brand identity in an inaugural season

SAFIAN: So we are halfway through the Valkyries’ inaugural season in the WNBA, heading into the All-Star game in Indianapolis this weekend. How’s it going so far? I mean, the team is solidly mid-table in the standings. Is that better than you expected? Were you hoping for more?

SMITH: I mean, for me, I oversee the business side of the Valkyries, but I’ve known since we hired general manager, Ohemaa Nyanin, and she hired Coach Natalie Nakase that the culture they were building was one of team over self where anything’s possible when you can work together.

And I think as a fan, for me, and watching this team come together, the defense they play, how they tackle each opponent one by one has just been remarkable. And I think it’s a joy to feel what the fans feel in those surprises compared to many expansion teams, regardless of sport, just in the history of sport. For us, that has just been remarkable and it’s been quite a journey.

SAFIAN: Yeah. Will you be in Indy for the All-Star game? It’s been a hospitable locale for the Valkyries of late, recently crushed Caitlin Clark’s team, the Fever.

SMITH: That was a fun game to watch. But yes, heading to Indy, it was in Phoenix last year where the W had a great setup for All-Star and I think this year is going to take it to another level yet again. And so just fun to be a part of the growth and meet with a lot of counterparts, brands, and athletes and market.

SAFIAN: How important to the league and to your team’s business has Caitlin mania been? I mean, your timing for a new franchise couldn’t have been better. You broke records for season ticket sales even before the season started. Is that because of that timing or are there other things that you were doing?

SMITH: So previous to my time here at the Valkyries, I was a part of building Angel City Football Club from day one. That’s the women’s soccer club in Los Angeles beside Natalie Portman, Julie Uhrman, and Kara Nortman.

So different sport, different league, different market, and same playbook to many extents where when you build unapologetically and relentlessly to serve a unique fan base that has been waiting for something powerful in women’s sports, you see the output, you see sold-out arenas, sold-out venues, record-breaking merchandise that really translates to also lifestyle merchandise. You see unique audiences pouring in.

So the growth has been here for quite some time, and no growth is linear, right? So whenever I talk about growth, I also like to make sure that I’m chatting about since Title IX, there have been so many different moments in time that have led us to where we are today where you’re really seeing this full-scale, high-level expansion, no longer, “Will the league survive?” type of commentary.

I think Caitlin, amongst she herself, the records she was breaking in college and how she can shoot the ball, the logo threes, it’s fun, right? But what she’s brought into the league is that traditional sports fan, right? Somebody that tuned in because there was great basketball happening and then followed her into the WNBA and they’re like, “This league is great.”

And so certainly she personally has a ton of fans, as she should. She’s a great force and great athlete within this league. But I think you’re also seeing that as a part of the continued growth, right?

For us here at the Valkyries, we’re the first expansion team since 2008, and we’ve said from day one, well, maybe I’ve said and made everybody else say it, but that’s a great responsibility. People have been asking the W for more for a long time, more of everything. Right? We want more teams, we want more roster spots, we want more visibility, we want more, more, more.

Well, Golden State was the first answer to more. And so the world, as soon as that happened, kind of turned and said, “Okay, what are you guys going to do?” Right? To know that as the first expansion team since 2008, we were going to be what people looked at of what the standard would be, not just for us, not just for our fans, not just for the Bay Area, but the future state of this league.

And so I think for us it was a really monumental moment actually welcoming Indiana into Chase Center and into what we call Ballhalla. Because as I was talking to different media that week, a lot of what I said was, Caitlin’s used to obviously traveling and having a ton of fans wherever she goes, and I think she always will, but I don’t know if she was used to coming into an arena that was a sea of violet and truly there in a home court advantage that we were able to put together alongside our fans and community in a short period of time.

So I think more is more. There’s no singular in any direct, “this person equates to this”. I think you’re seeing investment all around from athletes, ownership, partners, fans, media. You need all of those factors to work together, it can’t be singular.

Copy LinkCreating a unique experience for distinct audiences

SAFIAN: I mean, there’s a lot of pressure, as you describe it there, on the Valkyries coming out of the gate quickly, right? I mean, were you working just with the team or how much sort of collaboration is there across the league and with other teams? Because again, as you describe it, this is sort of a stake in the ground to say, “Hey, we can take this whole league to the next level.”

SMITH: For sure. I mean, I think if you talk to any entrepreneur or any startup, it was really important that that was our mentality, the entrepreneurial mindset, not to look around and say, “What has the NBA and the Warriors done? What has the WNBA done?” Because our product was not either one of those if we were going to maximize exactly what it was.

So for us, very fortunate to have the ownership group that we do, the facilities that we do, the commitment, small things that aren’t small. While we had access to our Oakland facility, three courts, premier space, standalone Valkyries, what would make it theirs? What would make it renowned? Not only so athletes felt that it was some place that they could throw shots and become their best selves, but someplace where when you walked in, you knew it was powerful in the home of the Valkyries. And similar to Chase Center, a lot of teams are in a visiting locker room. We were able to build a standalone locker room.

And being inside the Warriors and Golden State organization, when you bring something like that up and you immediately get, “Okay, well, let’s build, let’s renovate,” that level of not only investment from ownership, but the fact that we have the expertise within Golden State to make it happen is something I certainly don’t take for granted.

What ownership gave me that I think cannot be brushed over is the ability to hire a standalone staff. I think often when you see teams that are under an ownership umbrella, of course you’re always looking for ways of optimizing talent that you have, but to build a unique product and to build it well, you also do need significant staff to do that.

So we really built a staff within the last year and a half of close to 60 people at this point that are specifically dedicated to the Valkyries’ business, on top of some of those shared services like I talked about. And that’s allowed us to be relentless about fan acquisition, servicing our fans, building that ticketed opportunity. We have over 10,000 season ticket holders, the same as the Warriors, less than 7% crossover.

So we have built something for a unique audience, and we do have to cater to two different audiences even though we sit in the same building.

SAFIAN: Yeah, I mean, I’m curious about that audience differentiation. I mean, you mentioned you worked at Angel City FC, you’ve worked in Major League Baseball, you’ve worked in the NHL, you worked in Major League Soccer, you’ve been at a lot of different leagues. What’s different about the fan for the W than those other leagues, and I guess what’s different about the fan for the Valkyries specifically in your market?

SMITH: Well, I think first and foremost, from the outside looking in, you kind of just assume a sports fan is a sports fan, right? If somebody is a traditional fan, they’re going to be a 49ers fan, Giants fan, Sharks fan, you’re going to kind of go through the major sports franchises. Well, sometimes that’s true. How those fans act within those different realms are much different. And every league does have profiles of demographics that are more apt to be their fans, right?

So that’s a science. The NHL and Major League Baseball are not approaching things the same way. And I think having experience in multiple different leagues gave me the confidence of understanding and in wanting to build things in a unique way, because that’s actually what makes each league powerful in its own.

And specific to the W and specific to women’s sports, but even more broadly than the W, is it’s the women’s sports fan that I think has been undervalued and understudied for a really long time, right?

So they’re not in people’s databases probably. I can’t tell you the number of people that would come up to me before we went on sale, before we really had a brand and just say, “Please sell me a premier experience. I want the club with the cool food and the floor seats. I don’t want something that assumes I want to pay less to gain more access.” Right? They wanted to be served something like they would be where you would traditionally see that in men’s sports.

We understood that really no matter what, whether it’s WNBA, NBA, MLS, NWSL, you were seeing from a ticketed fan base, from a season ticket holder really always less than 10% of a crossover, so why would you build your product that way?

So as I came to the Valkyries, I think the opportunity was so great in that Golden State, they built Chase Center, they’ve won a few championships along the way, and they’re just known to be genuinely caring and genuinely talented at whatever they do on and off the court. I feel like I’ve joined the Avengers in so many different ways when you walk in these walls.

How do you build into the innate trust of Golden State and yet build uniquely for this audience, this young diverse audience that probably isn’t closely following the NFL, the NHL, Major League Baseball? Maybe they go to games, maybe they know a little bit, maybe they’ve chosen one, but it’s an audience that is really thoughtful around right now where they spend their time and money. They want to be on things they believe is building a better tomorrow, things they believe brings them community, they want to be around like-minded organizations.

And I think for the Bay, this is a woman’s sports market. This market’s been waiting for something powerful to come. And Bay FC’s obviously done a tremendous job launching right before us as well. But this market’s also where the world looks to see what comes next. It’s innovative.

People here don’t have the mindset of needing to see something tested before they buy in. In fact, they take pride in wanting to buy in from day one and be those first and early adopters simply because of the region that we are a part of.

Copy LinkCollaboration versus competition in women’s sports

SAFIAN: You mentioned Bay FC, the women’s pro soccer team in the Bay Area, just a couple seasons in themselves. Do you think about them as competition for ticket sales? How do you think about that?

SMITH: I actually really love that question because I wonder if it gets asked often to the 9ers being like, “So, Warriors are down the street. How’s this going to work?”

I go back to the Mean Girls reference of just the limit does not exist. I think there’s two things. One, the women’s sports fan doesn’t mean that they’re the same person, just like the men’s sports fan doesn’t mean that they’re the same person. There might be a women’s sports fan who appreciates and wants to be a part of, in some capacity, both organizations, but they’re going to be a hyperfan of one to the other. Whether it’s a sport they played, a sport they followed more closely, athletes that they follow, or simply geographic location and simplicity of how to get to the venues that we have.

But I think as we continue to grow women’s sports, we do talk broadly self-included about the women’s sports fan because it has been understudied and undervalued for a long time, but there certainly are segments in that, people that are just Bay FC fans and may casually follow the Valkyries and vice versa.

So I think it’s a “more is more” calculation of just the women’s sports relevancy of our market and pride in our market is what we’ve seen. And them too. We’re in close contact with them, we’ve done a few different fun things, our athletes have attended one another’s games, and they even had two of our athletes do the ceremonial first kick. I don’t know if Tiffany Hayes should do soccer, but it was really fun to watch.

SAFIAN: I love the way Jess talks about sports as not being a zero-sum game. There may be only one winner on the court or playing field, but as businesses, sports teams are part of a connected ecosystem. It’s a reality that leaders in other industries often overlook in their competitive zeal.

So for the Valkyries, does any of that change with the WNBA’s plan to add five more expansion teams? We’ll talk about that and more after the break. Stay with us.

[AD BREAK]

Before the break, Golden State Valkyries President Jess Smith talked about building a fan base from scratch during the organization’s rookie season. Now Jess talks about how she juggles this season’s on-the-court results against long-term business goals, how sports is a reflection of wider trends in society, and why women’s professional sports is at a legitimate tipping point in the WNBA and beyond. Let’s dive back in.

You mentioned part of your influence in the W has been to sort of pave the way for more expansion teams in the WNBA. The league recently announced five new teams, Portland, Toronto, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland.

Adding more teams, I mean, it’s good. It’s sort of like, oh, it means you sort of paved the way, but at the same time, doesn’t it make it harder for you to stand out as a team in the league?

SMITH: I don’t think so. I think when you look at any league structure… By the way, even with those five teams, the league will be at 18 teams. Right? So the more relevancy this league has in as many different markets as possible, that’s good for everybody.

In the rooms that I’m in, and I think in a lot of the rooms that the WNBA presidents are a part of and so forth, we are all so focused on catering to WNBA fans. If we can all focus on doing what’s best for WNBA fans, attracting new fans regardless of market, that’s good for everyone. Whether it’s those preseason games you saw, going to the college campuses and going into markets that probably don’t travel to W games yet, whether it’s great localized TV deals that are getting broader reach in different areas, it is still at a point of infancy when you just think of the number of media markets that we have, and getting to 18 and certainly opening Canada is big for us, right?

So I don’t believe that. I think the league is being really diligent about who these markets are, what the media values are going to be that help all of us make sure that our audience continues to grow.

Copy LinkBalancing immediate impact with future planning

SAFIAN: Running a professional sports team, it’s such an interesting business to me because you’ve got the team and you’ve got the league, and then you’ve also got sort of these near-term goals like budgets for each season and so on. But in many ways, sort of the overall team valuation is what matters most, right? The Valkyries were already valued at, I don’t know, half a billion dollars or something. How do you think about all of those sort of trade-offs and that duality between the season’s P&L versus team valuation?

SMITH: Well, I love that you know that’s part of my job, because if you ask my kids, they just think I watch basketball all day because that’s all they ever see me do. They’re like, “You’re going to work.” They’re like, “Alright, I don’t know why you’re dressed like that. You’re just with basketball players all day.”

For us and for me, very candidly, I’m already in 2026 pretty far and already in the sophomore year and thinking through what those stories are going to be. By November we’re going to have our full marketing plan that we can then get out to the right folks, make sure that we are extending through partnerships, media, et cetera, to make sure that next year is even better and bigger.

And so I’m always in two different places, as everybody in my seat is, right? You’re in the now looking at the game by game, what are the reactionary opportunities that we can have? What are the things under our control? But to stay in front of your business, especially in a startup phase, you do need to be 12, 18, 24 months ahead at all times.

And for me, both coming from Angel City and then coming here and being at this growth stage of these two companies, I’ve also learned about how to hire into opportunity and resource into opportunity. Right?

So what are we seeing and learning, and then what do we still need to test? This is new. So to your point before, how are developers going to stand out with five new teams? To me, the question is more how do we continue to grow what we just had happen, right? And how do we create even more pride? And if we’re seeing this much turnout with the following demographics, who are we missing actually and why? Right? Those are the opportunities I now get to go think about and think through how do we attract that fan?

We had some really great findings early on from our brand. We sold merchandise in the first four months in 70 countries and all 50 states, and that’s only grown exponentially since then. And so now that we have created Ballhalla, have this FOMO ticketing experience, we certainly need to keep doing that, but now the fun begins of and then what else?

Copy LinkEnsuring values-driven growth in women’s sports

SAFIAN: I had Sports Reporter Sarah Spain on the show recently, and she shared her fear that as women’s sports grow, it could absorb some of the negative aspects, a culture associated sometimes with men’s sports. Does that worry you at all?

SMITH: It doesn’t. I truly believe regardless of anything that sport is a reflection of society. I actually said it at espnW Summit in New York three years ago, when you’re really trying to understand why people feel a certain way or how to give them what they’re looking for, but also how to absorb how people look at you from an organizational standpoint and why they feel emotionally connected to who you are and who your athletes are, I think it’s always important to know that’s a reflection of what’s happening elsewhere, right?

And as an organization, it’s your job to be shoulders down and as loving and inclusive in those moments to create gatherings and safe places as possible. And I think that’s women’s sports and men’s sports.

Want to know what’s happening in the world, tune into the Olympics, right? Everything will be on display front and center like what countries are there, what countries aren’t, which ones are allowed to participate, which ones aren’t, which athletes are sharing more about their personal journeys, which ones are not allowed to yet?

And what we’re building is no different certainly in the communities that we represent on the court as well. And so I think there are some real things that we deal with that men’s sports do too around negativity and hatred and things like that that we are constantly thinking about. But I also believe wholeheartedly that when you bring groups of people together that are aligned and why it exists in the first place, that it’s unstoppable. And I think that’s what the WNBA is.

I sat with the commissioner at the Golden State Partner Summit three years ago now, two years ago now I suppose, and I just said, “This league is going to be one of the most powerful sports leagues in the world. It has everything that it needs. You can take Women’s out of the equation.” Right?

Yes, some of that’s going to come with the narratives that exist and that we’re seeing out there today, but it’s a responsibility in all those moments as well to make sure that we’re approaching it that way, building the products that we know it exists of, and catering to the people that we know can make sure that it is continuing to be a safe and fun place.

SAFIAN: I mean, people say that women’s sports is having a moment. Others say it’s far more than a moment. I’m hoping that’s true. I’m not sure we’re all the way there yet. What do you think? Are there things that you look at as sort of signals that women’s professional sports is anchored in culture in a different kind of way? Has that already happened or are there things that you’re looking towards?

Copy LinkThe exponential rise of women’s professional sports

SMITH: I believe I have one of the best perspectives here, having seats at the table and being with Angel City from day one and being with this organization as the first expansion team. So again, two different leagues that have had hyper growth here in the US.

And from the last five years, I can tell you the growth year over year is exponential. From the five years ago when I was in rooms building partnerships, building ticketing, explaining to people what the product of women’s sports was to now talking to you, being on Good Morning America to talk about the business of women’s sports and what we’re seeing happen, I can tell you that at the rate it’s growing and then the investment that you’re seeing with expansion teams and so forth coming in that it’s here.

I think the people that are now investing in these leagues, the infrastructure that exists in the buildings, which is something that obviously has been talked about for a very long time, the bigger pain points that have existed in the past don’t exist anymore.

And yes, there is a lot of work to be done to continue to grow this league in a lot of different ways and women’s sports in total, but consumers are not going anywhere. They continue to grow, they continue to increase ratings. It’s never about watching this versus that.

So I don’t want to necessarily namedrop the men’s league specifically, but regular season WNBA games are getting the same ratings as some postseason games with some of the top men’s leagues here in the US. That can’t be ignored anymore. Right?

So the ratings are there, the networks are there, the ad dollars are there, the expansion teams are there, the venues are there, but most importantly, the fans are there. So what I’m seeing behind the scenes and in front of the scenes, this is just the beginning, but it’s not just the beginning like it was five years ago.

When I first met with the players when they joined and we just introduced our business team and explained what we all do and how they could reach us if they needed anything specific to what we do, I simply just said, “My job is to give you the best home court advantage. That’s it. So you guys get to do the rest and the hard stuff.”

SAFIAN: Well, Jess, this was great. Thanks for doing it, and good luck in Indy this weekend.

SMITH: Thank you.

SAFIAN: The fact that Jess equates running an expansion team with operating a startup is more than a reflection of the Valkyries’ physical proximity to Silicon Valley. It’s an acknowledgement that fluidity and creativity are a priority if you want to appeal to customers and fans these days on the court and off the court.

I keep thinking about Jess saying that she’s already focused on 2026. For many of us, the chaos of the moment can distract us from future opportunities. While not all business metrics are as finite as a championship parade, it’s important that we all decipher what it means to win for our enterprise. What are we striving for? Are we all pulling in the same direction to get there? In these unforgiving times, any business without a proactive game plan is at a significant disadvantage even if we know we’re going to have to adjust the game plan on the fly.

So let’s get out the coach’s whiteboard and start drawing up some X’s and O’s. It’s game on. I’m Bob Safian. Thanks for listening.