SAN FRANCISCO – Stanford women’s
basketball coaching legend Tara VanDerveer was thrilled when she caught wind Tuesday night that the Bay Area be getting a WNBA team. Like many fans who’ve waited so long for this to happen, though, women’s college basketball’s all-time wins leader had to taper her excitement. “It kind of feels a little bit like a tease,” VanDerveer said Wednesday. “Let’s really make it official.” The Warriors are close to finalizing a deal that would bring a WNBA expansion team to the Bay Area, according to . The team and league were clear that no deal has been finalized, but the Warriors said they have held “productive conversations” with the WNBA in recent months. Mitty girls basketball coach Sue Phillips was watching the second round of the WNBA playoffs Tuesday night when a tweet tipped her off that a team may be closer than ever. “I was over the
moon and just excited,” Phillips said Wednesday. Ever since the WNBA announced in 2022 its plans to expand in the coming years, the Bay has been seen as a legitimate target market, with the Warriors appearing to be a frontrunner between two Bay Area-based ownership groups vying for a team. Golden State has spent the last year meeting with WNBA executives about potentially being part of the league’s plans to expand. This news organization previously reported the Warriors hosted the WNBA on a site visit in San Francisco within the last 12 months. Meanwhile, the African
American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG), the competing Oakland bid led by 16-year WNBA star Alana Beard, still plans to submit a formal proposal for a team in the East Bay, sources said. AASEG declined to comment for this story. The WNBA acknowledged in a statement that news on the league’s expansion plans is coming “in the near future” but gave no hint as to where it will expand and when a team would start play. If a team is announced in the coming weeks, it could join the league to play in the 2025 season. Kelly Sopak, Carondelet High girls basketball coach, believes bringing the WNBA to the Bay Area, a region with a rich appetite for women’s basketball, is “long overdue,” citing the departure of the Raiders and expected exit of the A’s. “They can build another fanbase to kind of replace what we’ve lost,” said Sopak, who founded Cal Stars basketball club and helped develop players such as Sabrina Ioenescu and Haley Jones. “It’d be a great shot in the arm for the Bay Area and Northern
California, especially women’s sports. That would be positive and uplifting.” If the Warriors were to get an expansion team, their WNBA counterpart would practice at the Warriors’ Oakland facility and play at Chase Center, sources said. Lacob’s desires to one day own a WNBA franchise are well known. He’s been a longtime supporter of women’s basketball, having owned the San Jose Lasers of the American Basketball League, a major professional women’s basketball league that preceded the WNBA. Lacob told this news organization in July that he believes San Francisco “would be a phenomenal place” for a WNBA team. And WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert previously said it “doesn’t seem right” that the Bay is without a WNBA team. The Warriors have repeatedly said that they would be eager to add a WNBA team to their organization if the timing was right and the business made sense. With Chase Center now open and generating revenue and the WNBA open to expansion, it appears now is as good a time as ever for the Warriors to go forward with their plan. WNBA fans across the country have been waiting years for expansion news. Engelbert previously said she planned to identify a city or two by the end of 2022, with the goal of having a team or teams up and running as soon as the 2024 season. A year later, though, the league has not announced any expansion. Several youth coaches believe having a WNBA team in the Bay could have a ripple effect on the women’s basketball landscape in Northern California. “Representation matters,” Phillips said. “Our young people out there aspiring, particularly our young
Women, who are aspiring to play professionally or play the game, to go to a WNBA game and see the fan excitement and the quality of basketball and the role models, it would just be incredible to help spark additional interest. Investing in women’s sports is a great way to go for our future and I do think there’s an interest there.” Added VanDerveer, “I know our fans would love to see former Stanford players playing for a Bay Area team or obviously coming in, getting a chance to watch them play when they would get a chance to play here. I know this would be a very exciting place for a team to be and I know the players would be excited about it.” And if a team were to come, might a familiar face be coaching on the sidelines? “You never say never to anything,” VanDerveer said. “But I’m very content coaching at Stanford. And I think some of it for me is I like to water ski too much in the summer. “But I’ll be a fan and I’ll be really excited to watch the team and I think it would be thrilling.”