How a WNBA team became the first women's sports team to hit $100M in annual revenue

This women's sports team just made 100 million USD in a single year. They also happen to be in the WNBA finals right now. The Golden State Valkyries just became the first women's pro sports team to hit this milestone, and it's only their second season. So what's their secret? Their president, Jess Smith, has played a significant role in the team's business success. They're also owned by the same owners of the NBA's Golden State Warriors and the 18,000-seat arena that they play in. And while these things aren't necessarily replicable, their brand strategy could be. If you're a Valkyries fan, you're a part of the devoted fan base, the Valhalla, which is a play on Valhalla from Norse mythology tying into the team's warrior branding. The Valhalla gets so loud that referee whistles sometimes are completely inaudible in the arena. And for the Valkyries, like, fandom has really probably been the commercial engine. They've cultivated a really cool community that's maybe a bit untraditional in terms of sport, too. Their brand identity is so strong that fans across 50 U.S. states and 70 countries have purchased Valkyrie's merchandise. Plus, the team has a 90% season ticket holder renewal rate for next season. So how does a team develop such a loyal fan base? You need to move them along into attachment and start to identify as fans, build a really big tent, right? that we can't just encourage little girls to be coming out to games. We need to have everybody to be a truly sustainable sport, professional sport franchise. The Toronto Tempo just wrapped its inaugural season, launching with 17 corporate sponsors and 65% of their seats held by season ticket holders. The lessons around that creating fan identity and understanding your audience and building those communities, I think that's gonna be relevant whether you're in San Francisco or Toronto or some other market. The Valkyries have shown what can happen for a women's team when they get the investment, infrastructure, and marketing to match its potential. Because this doesn't need to be an outlier case. It can set a precedent for what a women's sports team can achieve.