San Francisco Changed Colors this Summer

If you've walked around San Francisco this summer, you may have noticed a change of color. We are accustomed to seeing the famous Warrior blue throughout the city, the Giants orange, and even Niner red despite their move to Santa Clara. But this summer a new color emerged. It's a sort of purple, but not like one we've seen before when our friends from LA visit. It's a more subtle purple. A more welcoming purple. In fact, it's not purple at all -- it's Valkyrie Violet.

Source: Golden State Valkyries

The WNBA's newest franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, have taken the city and league by storm, surpassing all expectations with 10 wins at the halfway mark of the season (Vegas oddsmakers predicted they would have 9 wins for the entire season), while selling out every single home game at Chase Center's 18,064 capacity.

In October 2023, the WNBA announced it was awarding an expansion franchise to the Golden State Warriors ownership group led by Joe Lacob, making it the 13th WNBA team and first new franchise since 2008. Despite not having a name or any hired staff or players, the "WNBA Golden State," as it was first referred to, invited aspiring season ticket holders to make a $25 deposit to stake their claim to a seat at Chase Center. By April 2024, Golden State announced it had already taken 7,000 deposits.

In May 2024, Golden State unveiled the Valkyries name and branding (including that beautiful violet), and off they went building what has already become the league's most valuable franchise.* Over the next 12 months the team hired a front office and coach, renovated a former Warriors facility in Oakland to be the Valkyries headquarters, completed an expansion draft to select players from existing WNBA teams, completed the traditional draft to select new players to the WNBA, signed free agents, and sold a hell of a lot of season tickets (reportedly more than 10,000).

By the time the Valkyries took the court in May 2025, fans had been boiling over with excitement and energy. People from every corner of the Bay pack Chase Center (now unofficially known as Ballhalla), wearing homemade t-shirts, $150 jerseys, and any violet they can find. As the popular media and commerce company Togethxr's tagline suggests, everyone is watching women's sports.

And this is all to say, the Valkyrie Violet is here to stay.

*Sports business outlet Sportico recently valued the team at $500m, the most in the league, surpassing the defending champion New York Liberty at $420m. Though some assume the lofty valuation is due to the team's ties to the Warriors, Sportico reported that only 4% of Valkyries season ticket holders were Warriors season ticket holders, a testament to the team's ability to garner a new and unique Bay Area fanbase.