WNBA Valkyries President Breaks Down Partnership Archetypes
Structuring partnerships around community impact and impressions
Just a month after the Golden State Valkyries played their first regular season game, they'd secured over 20 high-level partnerships, exceeded 20,000 season ticket deposits, and achieved a $500 million valuation—the highest of any women's sports team globally.
Most expansion teams approach partnerships with rate cards based on comparable markets. The Valkyries refused to pitch brands until they could answer one question: What does it mean when consumers see your logo next to ours?
Jess Smith, the team's president and recently announced WNBA business exec of the year, brought this approach from her previous role as Head of Revenue at Angel City FC. There, she built the NWSL club's commercial operation from the ground up.
Over four years, she renewed over 90% of season ticket members while creating a partnership model that married revenue with community impact. Across 18 years building revenue operations in professional sports, Smith had watched the traditional model fail women's sports—brands treating WNBA investments as NBA extensions, expecting the same audiences and activation playbooks.
When Smith joined the Valkyries in February 2024, her first decision was to pause all partnership conversations. No deals until the team could define what those partnerships would actually mean. By the time the Valkyries tipped off, each founding partner received custom solutions built around specific business objectives rather than standardized sponsorship packages.
Key Takeaways:
The Valkyries' "strategic pause" approach—created coherent value propositions that justified premium pricing.
Founding partnerships—demonstrate how each archetype turns brands into community builders rather than passive advertisers.
Multi-brand Impact Council—turns competing sponsors into collaborators sharing consumer insights and supporting collective women's sports growth.
Defining Partnership Before Pricing It
When Smith joined the Valkyries, preliminary partnership conversations had already started. Her call was to pause everything.
"We went dark for a minute to figure out: What does it mean to be a Valkyries partner? When somebody shows up and sees a founding-level partner, it has to have an element to that that means more."
The answers from that "going dark" period came from understanding distinct partnership needs across different industries.
"You're not simply out in the market charging because somebody else did,” says Smith about her pricing philosophy. “When you do this partnership, and I'm asking you to pay this much money, I show how this is going to pay out for you."
The Partnership Archetypes To Build Community, Not Commodity
The Valkyries created distinct partnership models that matched each brand's identity while serving the team's community mission. Three founding partnerships show how different industries can authentically integrate with women's sports while still generating financial opportunities
JPMorganChase: Amplifying Economic Opportunity
Backed with strong sports marketing credentials across the Bay Area, JPMorganChase was deliberately positioned by Smith as more than a sports partner, serving instead as an engine for small business growth via the Violet Book of Business.
The program provides training sessions for female and diverse business owners, connects them with JPMorganChase resources, and amplifies their stories through Valkyries' platforms.
"With JPMorganChase, we're supporting small business and making sure that we're doing everything from training to providing resources," Smith explains.
Each small business supported through the program creates trackable economic impact while connecting JPMorganChase with consumers who make purchasing decisions based on brand values.
Kaiser Permanente: Supporting Community Need
Instead of telling the community what it needed, Smith alongside Kaiser Permanente conducted a listening tour in December 2024 with 150 Bay Area stakeholders—teachers, coaches, parents, nonprofit leaders.
The focal question of the tour: "When you see Kaiser Permanente and the Valkyries show up, what do you want that to mean?"
The resounding answer was “keep young girls active.” The Women's Sports Foundation reports that by age 15, girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys.
In response, Kaiser Permanente pledges $25 from every jersey sale to fund She Plays On, a dedicated platform designed to empower Bay Area girls to live healthy, active lifestyles on and off the court. Fans buying jerseys know exactly where their money goes. Kaiser Permanente tracks coaching education and girls remaining active in sports, outcomes that have a much longer-term impact than impressions made on the court.
Sephora: Celebrating Athletes Beyond Competition
Sephora's founding partnership addresses how athletes express themselves off the court. The team hosted their first fashion show, presented by Sephora, featuring Valkyries player Tiffany Hayes’ designer line, “Seyah” alongside four other custom collections. Multiple Valkyries players modeled in the show.
Sephora also sponsors the performance center, a choice that reinforces their positioning around preparation and daily commitment, not just game-day moments.
The facility naming connects Sephora with what Smith describes as the daily reality of athlete preparation: "It's not just when people look a certain way or are ready for prime time, it's the behind the scenes. It's the everyday grit and work and resilience."
Each partnership demonstrates the same principle: brands that participate in community building generate stronger business results than simply purchasing visibility.
Turning Competition Into Collaboration
The Valkyries created an Impact Council where founding-level partners meet regularly to share consumer insights and collaborate on broader women's sports initiatives. Representatives from JPMorganChase, Kaiser Permanente, Sephora, and other founding partners attend sessions lasting two to three days annually.
The council transforms traditional competitive dynamics between sponsors into collaborative opportunities. Partners share learnings about what works in women's sports marketing, discuss consumer behavior patterns across their different industries, and coordinate support for expansion teams entering the market.
Building Tomorrow’s Value Through Today’s Structure
Success requires rejecting shortcuts.
The Valkyries’ marketing delivered beyond partnership volume:
Over 20 high-level partnerships
Over 10,000 season tickets sold
Only 7% crossover from the Warriors fanbase (proof they'd reached an entirely new consumer segment)
Merchandise sales reached all 50 states and 70 countries
Set the all-time WNBA records for both average attendance (18,064) and total attendance (397,408) while selling out all 22 regular-season home games in 2025
Smith positions the success as proof that women's sports offers sophisticated business opportunities:
"We want to be a place where mission and capital can coexist, and not have to be one or the other. No, we are not a charity, and yes, we can be purpose-driven."
The three partnership archetypes demonstrate why this matters. Each addresses different brand objectives while creating community outcomes that consumers actually care about.
Research from Wasserman shows women's sports fans are 54% more aware of sponsors and 45% more willing to buy from team sponsors than fans of men's sports. The Valkyries structured partnerships to capture that engagement beyond simple visibility.
The $500 million valuation after just a single month of play proves the model works. The teams that win in this space will be those willing to do the work upfront, long before the first whistle blows.
