The Golden State Valkyries have become the first women's sports team to record $100 million in annual revenue, according to president Jess Smith, who disclosed the figure to Digiday. The WNBA's youngest franchise reached the milestone just two years after its inception, backed by more than 40 partners including long-term sponsors Carmax, Rakuten and Kaiser Permanente.

Sponsorship income alone grew 30% year on year, Smith said. That growth is the engine behind the revenue record — and behind the team's argument to marketers that women's sports deserve a larger share of sponsorship budgets as spending in the category rises.

How is the team competing for sponsors without a long track record?

The Valkyries face an uneven playing field in the boardroom. Rival teams bring years of data and precedent to their sponsorship pitches. Smith has tried to close that gap on two fronts, per Sportico: tailoring exclusivity rights for individual partners and meeting marketers' rising demands for sponsorship-impact measurement.

The measurement effort includes a data partnership with talent agency The Team. Golden State has also doubled the Valkyries' marketing headcount to support the commercial push.

What is the pitch to marketers?

Smith frames the team's commercial story around a simple proposition: "Mission and capital can coexist." The Valkyries position themselves not only as a values-driven property but as a measurable business investment for brands.

The sponsor roster gives the pitch weight. Beyond Carmax, Rakuten and Kaiser Permanente, the team counts over 40 partners in total — an unusually deep bench for a franchise that did not exist two years ago.

Capturing a fair share of the rising spend on women's sports is, in Smith's view, crucial to the franchise's long-term sustainability. The $100 million result suggests the model is working in the near term.

Why the number matters

The revenue milestone sets a precedent no women's team had previously reached, giving the Valkyries the kind of hard data point they previously lacked when sitting across from prospective sponsors. For marketers weighing women's sports properties, the figure signals that a first-season expansion franchise can now anchor sponsorship cases with audited-scale revenue rather than projections alone.

Smith's next challenge is sustaining that growth against competitors with deeper historical datasets — and proving that a 30% sponsorship lift can repeat as the team matures.