WNBA expansion team coming to Bay Area

Article posted by Coliseum, October 25^th, 2023

Image: Chase Center, Willowcharter, CC BY-SA 4.0

The first new Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team in 15 years is coming to the Bay Area (US) as part of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Golden State Warriors organization, team and league officials announced recently.

‘PleasantonWeekly.com’ stated that the expansion team, whose name has not been disclosed, will play home games at the Chase Center in San Francisco starting in 2025 while its head office and practice facility will be in Oakland.

New York (US)-based the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of 12 teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22^nd, 1996 as the women’s counterpart to the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the league play started in 1997. The regular season is played from May to September, with the All Star game being played midway through the season in July (except in Olympic years) and the WNBA Finals at the end of September until the beginning of October.

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New York (US)-based the National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams. It is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional basketball league in the world.

The San Francisco Bay Area is a region in Northern California (US) spanning the City of San Francisco and the surrounding counties. On a peninsula, the hilly San Francisco is known for its cable cars, Victorian houses and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. North, the Sonoma and Napa valleys are renowned wine-producing regions with hundreds of hillside vineyards. Gourmet food is showcased in the Oxbow Public Market in the City of Napa.

The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco (US). The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference.

The Chase Center is an indoor arena in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California (US). The building is the home venue for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and occasionally for the University of San Francisco men’s and women’s basketball teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Warriors, who have been located in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1962, played their home games at the 19,200-capacity Oakland Arena in Oakland from 1971 to 2019. The Chase Center opened on September 6th, 2019 and seats 18,064 for the Warriors games.

Informed Warriors Co-Executive Chairman and head honcho Joe Lacob, “We have been interested in a WNBA franchise for several years, due in part to the rich history of women’s basketball in the Bay Area, and believe now is the ideal time to execute that vision and build upon that legacy.”

‘PleasantonWeekly.com’ further stated that the game tickets are not yet on sale but fans can pay $25 to place their names on a waiting list to buy season tickets, according to the team’s website.

Commented Cathy Engelbert, WNBA Commissioner, “Joe Lacob, (Warriors owner) Peter Guber and their leadership team know how to build and operate a world-class organization, as witnessed by the immense success the Warriors’ franchise has enjoyed from both a business and basketball perspective over the last decade. Their interest in joining the WNBA family is yet another sign of the league’s growth potential.”

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