How defining partnership meaning led to $500M in valuation

Your Women's Sports Business Digest

January 08, 2026

We're kicking off 2026 with a look at how the Golden State Valkyries built the world's most valuable women's sports team—all within a month of tip-off.

Most expansion teams pitch brands with rate cards and comparable market data. Team president and recently announced WNBA executive of the year Jess Smith went dark on partnership conversations until she could answer one question:

What does it mean when consumers see your brand next to ours?

That pause created over 20 high-level partnerships structured around measurable outcomes—girls staying in sports, entrepreneurs receiving business support, and athletes sharing wellness practices with fans. 

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, according to Wasserman research. The Valkyries captured that engagement through programs fans could see and partners could track.

🤿 Below the Surface

Here's what's on deck this week:

  • Signal Strength: The Valkyries structure partnerships around impact and impressions

  • In the Current: LPGA partners with TMRW Sports to launch WTGL, women's sports podcasts on the rise, and NWSL’s new salary cap rule

  • Blue Zone: Marketing Brew tapped Deep Blue for 2026 sports sponsorship predictions

  • Shark Bite: UCLA women’s basketball coach on media coverage

⚡️ Signal Strength  

Defining "Why" Before "How Much" For Partnerships

When Jess Smith joined the Valkyries, preliminary partnership conversations had already started. Her first move was to pause everything. 

That strategic pause paid off.

By the time the Valkyries played their first game, they'd secured over 20 high-level partnerships structured around community outcomes, not just media assets. Each partner received custom solutions built around specific business objectives rather than standardized sponsorship packages.

Jess Smith built partnerships around three distinct archetypes, each matching brand identity with community outcomes:

Economic Opportunity (JPMorganChase): The Violet Book of Business connects female and diverse entrepreneurs with JPMorganChase training and resources, then amplifies their stories through Valkyries platforms. JPMorganChase uplifts values-driven consumers while creating trackable economic impact.

Community Listening (Kaiser Permanente): A 150-person listening tour with Bay Area stakeholders revealed the core need: keep girls in sports. Now $25 from every jersey sale funds coaching diversity and youth participation programs, addressing the statistic that girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys by age 15.

Cultural Authenticity (Sephora): The first Valkyries fashion show featured player-designed collections and athlete models, celebrating multidimensional identity beyond game day. Sephora's practice facility naming reinforces their positioning around daily preparation, not just performance.

By the numbers:

  • $500M valuation makes Valkyries the world's most valuable women's sports team

  • 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

  • Average WNBA team valuation increased 180% to $145 million in 2025

  • WNBA regular-season attendance increased 48% year-over-year in 2024

  • Merchandise sold in all 50 states and 70 countries before the inaugural season

What they're saying: "You're not simply out in the market charging because somebody else did. When you do this partnership, and I'm asking you to pay this much money, here's how this is going to pay out for you." — Jess Smith

Brands that define partnership meaning before partnership price create deeper business impact than those chasing comparable market rates.

📰 In the Current  

We monitor the current so you can ride the wave. Here's what you need to know this week:

🦈 Blue Zone  

Marketing Brew tapped Deep Blue's Laura Correnti for 2026 sports sponsorship predictions.

Where she sees opportunity:

  • ATHLOS: Alexis Ohanian's women's track and field event offers brands a new way to participate in endurance sports ahead of the 2028 LA Olympics

  • Women's Super League: Record viewership for the 2025 Women's Euro final points to strong commercial potential for UK's top women's soccer league globally

  • USWNT next-gen: Jaedyn Shaw, Catarina Macario, Lily Yohannes, and Alyssa Thompson deserve media and commercial investment as deep as their talent ahead of the 2027 Women's World Cup

  • Unrivaled + Athletes Unlimited: New women's leagues are reimagining how sports build audiences and sell commercially, creating cost-effective testing grounds for advertisers

🌊 Shark Bite

“I have never been shy about my desire to grow the game and to tell the stories of the great women in it. I know that traditional media has changed quite a bit, I just can’t remember a time in my 15 years as a head coach that we had a double-ranked game that had zero press conference and wanted zero quotes from the away team... I’m just asking for proportionate growth and coverage with the growth of our game, and I am happy to support non-traditional media that wants to tell the stories of our players in appropriate ways.” – Cori Close, UCLA women’s basketball coach

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Smith ran the tortoise race in a hare industry. Turns out, in partnerships, slow and deliberate beats fast and transactional.

– Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment

Interested in learning what deep blue is up to? Have an idea?  

Reach us at [email protected].

Rising Tide is published by Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment, the first-of-its-kind firm designed to identify, create, and influence business models and growth opportunities in women's sports for forward-thinking brands.