Night after night in San Francisco, at the home of the Golden State Valkyries, something remarkable has happened, marking a record-shattering milestone for a new women's franchise.
The No. 2 seed Valkyries have the highest average home attendance in the WNBA. Golden State averaged 18,064 fans per game in 2026. In second place is the New York Liberty with 16,496 fans per game and the Indiana Fever came in third at 16,379.
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When I watched the Golden State Valkyries beat the New York Liberty in Brooklyn in late August, I was surrounded by Valkyries fans in the lower level of Barclays. Dressed in violet, the two women next to me were clearly thrilled to see their team win a blowout on the road. They cheered respectfully, and I started a conversation. They were in New York City visiting friends and were fortunate to be able to see their favorite team on the road. They had also experienced the atmosphere at Ballhalla inside Chase Center, where the entire city of San Francisco has embraced the team, they said.
The numbers show the city's fanbase is strong. The organization sold out every home game in its inaugural 2025 season and continued into 2026.
By comparison, Indiana's Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which holds 17,274 to 18,345 seats for basketball games, sold out only five games this year (down from 8 sellouts in 2025 and 16 sellouts in 2024).
The team's fanbase is the league's best sixth man as the Valkyries host Game 1 of the WNBA Finals against the Atlanta Dream on Saturday at 3:30 p.m., with game two on Monday at 8 p.m.
Head coach Natalie Nakase has her band of scrappy players in sync during the playoffs after a tremendous regular season.
On the East Coast, Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream will play at State Farm Arena. ATL Barbie fans on social media point out that Reese is still playing and looking for another championship after winning an NCAA title, while the league's top State Farm advertising representative, Caitlin Clark, and her team got knocked out by the defending champs, the Las Vegas Aces. After beating the Indiana Fever, the Aces got swept in the WNBA semifinals by the Valkyries.
A first-round playoff exit shows the Indiana Fever will need serious rebuilding to advance further in the playoffs next year. Getting rid of Sophie Cunningham, a player who is the darling of Republican political rallies and whose divisive rhetoric has earned her more Instagram followers than her much-more talented teammate Clark, would be a good start.
"Obviously everybody liked to have size at every position and really the ability to have another player that can stretch the floor and stretch the floor consistently. You've got to have consistent production from the bench." Stephanie White said during her exit interview. She wasn't directly talking about Cunningham, but she's an unrestricted free agent.
Re-signing Kelsey Mitchell is the team's main goal. After that, White said the priority is finding "complementary pieces to our big three" of Mitchell, Clark and Aliyah Boston.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Dream made the best off-season acquisition last year and another key regular-season move that propelled them to the finals. Last-minute schedule changes moved Atlanta's game three to 8 p.m. on Wednesday at State Farm Arena, followed by game four on Oct. 24, a Saturday, at 1 p.m., also at State Farm.
Working out the schedule to play at State Farm reflects what Reese and the Dream have accomplished for the franchise this season. Atlanta will play all of its 2027 home games at State Farm Arena as part of a multiyear deal after playing at the 3,500-seat Gateway Center about 30 minutes outside Atlanta since 2021. State Farm Arena can seat 17,000 fans for basketball. That's quite the upgrade.
The entire arena will be open for the WNBA Finals after the Dream opened with a limited capacity during the first two playoff rounds.
The league's defensive player of the year has been the key to the team's surge in wins and popularity.
"We're the Hollywood of the South," Renee Montgomery, an All-Star guard and part-owner of the Dream since 2021, told the New York Times. "ATL loves stars, and ATL loves winners. ATL has been the Black Mecca for a while now. I love the saying in the (city), ‘Atlanta influences everything.' Because that's what the culture does. And Angel Reese is the culture."
This year she's not only the league's leading rebounder for the third straight year, but she's also proven she is coachable. She changed her shot under coach Karl Smesko's direction and is uniquely driven to succeed and win.
"Some people have another level they get to just because they want to win that bad… I think Angel kind of has that," Smesko told reporter Reggie Chatman Jr. on Tuesday.
I didn't pick the Dream in the first two rounds. But after watching them outplay the New York Liberty in the playoffs without their leading scorer Allisha Gray, I'm leaning toward the Dream. Adding veteran DeWanna Bonner late in the season gave them the final piece of the puzzle. Their ability to beat the Liberty on the road in front of a loud, sold-out crowd at Barclays is proof they can win in hostile environments like Ballhalla.
I'm going with the Dream in six games.
Team USA soccer against Spain
A 2-0 loss on Saturday and a 2-2 draw on Tuesday against world number one Spain could be the best thing to happen to the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team. In a nutshell, the USWNT has some question marks in goal and elsewhere heading into World Cup qualifying. The USWNT will start the road to the 2027 World Cup at the 2026 Concacaf W Championship in Texas, opening with a quarterfinal match against El Salvador at 8:30 p.m.
The Concacaf W Championship is a women's national team tournament that serves as the region's qualifying competition for the World Cup and the Olympics.
It's clear that when countries outside the United States finally started supporting women's soccer, competition at the World Cup and the Olympics got much harder.
Now it's even difficult for the U.S. Women's National Team to win at home in friendlies against the world's best. And that's how it should be leading up to a World Cup.
Bethlehem's Claire Hutton started the second game against Spain and her performance was rated 6 out of 10 by ESPN's Cesar Hernandez. Here's what he wrote: "Connected well with the midfield and provided some interventions but also could have been better with her long passes." It was an improvement of his analysis after she came on as a substitute on Saturday. "Aside from conservative passes, not much to say about her limited time on the field," he wrote.
Rooting for Hutton to get that breakthrough moment to solidify her spot on the USWNT.
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There’s more to Albany with the Times Union. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Bassett: Angel Reese, Dream meet Valkyries in new WNBA Finals era.