It's official. The WNBA is coming to the Bay Area.
The league on Thursday announced that the Golden State Warriors have been awarded a WNBA expansion team that will begin play in 2025.
The team's name will be announced at a later date.
"The Bay Area is the perfect market for a WNBA team, and we are thrilled this opportunity has finally come to fruition," Warriors Co-Executive Chairman and CEO Joe Lacob said in a statement. “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. The WNBA continues to solidify itself as the preeminent women’s professional basketball league, and we look forward to supporting the best women’s basketball players in the world and our team starting in 2025."
The team will be headquartered in Oakland at the Warriors' old facility, but home games will be played at Chase Center in San Francisco.
"We are thrilled about expanding to the Bay Area and bringing the WNBA to a region with passionate basketball fans and a strong history of supporting women’s basketball," WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. "Joe Lacob, 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."
Engelbert has faced constant questions about when the league would expand, to which she would reply when the time was right.
“The right time, the right moment is today,” Engelbert said, while welcoming, “the next generation of leaders, mothers and athletes.”
The WNBA currently has 12 teams. The Bay Area franchise marks the league's first expansion since 2008.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly> Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
