The First WNBA Billion-Dollar Team
The Golden State Valkyries are worth $1 billion two seasons into existence. That number is the cleanest case study of a league entering its second media-rights cycle from cultural relevance, not historical inertia — and the local-rights aisle is about to follow.
On April 22nd, we announced that Victory+ would be the exclusive local streaming home of the Minnesota Lynx. Twenty-six regular-season games. Three preseason. Free. No subscription, no cable bundle, no paywall. The first time a WNBA team has handed its local rights to a streaming platform.
Twelve days later, CNBC published its 2026 WNBA franchise valuations. The headline was that the league finally had its first billion-dollar team. The Golden State Valkyries — an expansion franchise that did not exist three years ago, a team that has played one season — were worth $1B. The league average came in at $460M.