On Sunday, the Minnesota Lynx demolished the Golden State Valkyries 101–72. Now, on the brink of elimination, the Valkyries will have to lean on a home crowd that powered them to a playoff berth in their first-ever season.
They’ll just have to do so in an arena they’ve never played in before. The teams meet again for Game 2 on Wednesday—but in San José, far from where they played their home games in San Francisco this year.
In an interview before the series against the powerhouse Lynx, Golden State president Jess Smith told Front Office Sports that she set out this season with a goal of “creating the best homecourt advantage you’ve ever seen.”
Mission accomplished. The Valkyries led the league in average attendance in their inaugural season with 18,064 fans per game. They sold out all 22 of their home games at the Chase Center and set a league record for total (397,408) home attendance.
Now, she’s tasked with recreating that homecourt advantage 50 miles south of Chase Center.
The Laver Cup—Roger Federer’s international men’s tennis tournament—booked the Chase Center September 19–21 back in 2023, before the Warriors were even granted an expansion team. Preparations for the tournament mean the Valkyries will play their first playoff game at the SAP Center in San José.
The Valkyries were navigating multiple scenarios—including being in contention for a top-four seed—which would have resulted in different playoff dates. As the No. 8 seed, the Valkyries will host Game 2 on Wednesday under the WNBA’s new 1-1-1 first-round format.
The environment takes on extra importance after Golden State coach Natalie Nakase blasted the officiating after Game 1 on Sunday. Nakase was hit with a technical foul for arguing in the second half and pleaded for better calls after the game.
“We’re playing the No. 1 team,” she said after the blowout loss. “We’re playing the best team in the league. They don’t need no help. This team is great. They’re stacked. They play well. They play beautiful basketball. They’re coached well. They don’t need the help.”
Smith told FOS that the team is taking the necessary steps to ensure the playoffs will be played at the Chase Center in the future, regardless of how a future WNBA playoff schedule looks like after CBA negotiations, which could include a new playoff schedule.
“The guardrails are the same that they would be for the Warriors,” Smith told FOS. (Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber own the Valkyries.) “With as much control as we have today, we will make the appropriate hold to make sure that the postseason can happen at Chase Center. But that’s not an immediate statement, because there are many different opportunities and scenarios that could take place in the coming years.”
The immediate task for the franchise is bringing the vaunted “Ballhalla” environment to the SAP Center.
The operations team at Chase Center will work alongside Valkyries staff to recreate the gameday feel in an as exact way as possible. The Valkyries home court will be moved to SAP and seats will be matched with specific risers ensuring the lower bowl feels like it did in San Francisco. Violet, the team’s new but beloved mascot, will also be in attendance in San Jose along with the dance team along with other standard game day elements.
Season ticket holders will also have “comparable” seats, Smith said, with the team working to make sure those fans are as close to their regular seats as possible. Smith said the team doesn’t anticipate any change in their sellout streak—which includes every home game—for the franchise’s first playoff game. The Chase Center seats 18,064 for basketball; the SAP Center is typically used for hockey and seats 18,500 for basketball.
The team’s season ticketholder base draws from the entire Bay Area “pretty equally,” Smith said, and the team is looking into “fun” campaigns for the Caltrain, which goes between the two cities.
“Similar to any experience that you see inside of Chase Center, the gameday production is top priority,” Smith said. She teased that there are “elements” that the organization is “playing with to make sure this feels very cool.”
