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Golden State Warriors close to bringing WNBA franchise to Bay Area … – SportsPro Media

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1 year ago

October 27, 2023

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The Golden State Warriors are set to bring a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) franchise to the Bay Area, according to The Athletic.
While a deal is yet to be finalised, the proposed arrangement will reportedly see the expansion team play their games at the Warriors’ Chase Center. The franchise will be based at the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) franchise’s practice facility in Oakland, which is still owned and operated to retain a presence in the community.
According to The Athletic, the Warriors were set to be the league’s preferred ownership group for a potential Bay Area franchise, provided they showed interest in bringing a team to the region. The Warriors’ majority owner Joe Lacob is said to have wanted a WNBA team for a while, having previously owned the American Basketball League’s San Jose Lasers back in 1996.
The Lasers were the last women’s basketball team based in the Bay Area, until the competition ceased operations in 1998.
In response to The Athletic’s report, the Warriors released a statement confirming talks had been held with the WNBA about bringing an expansion team to the Bay Area.
‘We have had productive conversations with the WNBA and look forward to the possibility of being a part of the league’s expansion plans,’ the statement said.
‘However, it would be premature to assume any potential agreement has been finalised.’
Expansion is inevitable for the WNBA. Last month, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she was targeting the addition of teams in “a couple of cities by the 2025 season”.
Several cities have been floated as potential landing spots for a franchise, with Denver reportedly a frontrunner. San Francisco would also make sense for the league, given some of the country’s top women’s college basketball programmes, such as Stanford and Cal, are based nearby,
The Warriors certainly have the pedigree to operate a WNBA franchise and are considered among the most-valuable US sports franchises. With a ready-made facility and arena, as well as an ownership group that has presided over a recent run of NBA success, the Bay Area has a convincing case to become the newest WNBA team since 2008.
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