‘Mission and capital can coexist’: Golden State Valkyries’ Jess Smith on pitch to sponsors

By Sam Bradley – October 9, 2026 –

The Golden State Valkyries are the WNBA’s youngest group. Given that their beginning 2 years earlier, they’ve been contending not simply on the court however in the conference room, looking for sponsorship financial investments as costs in ladies’s sports increases.

Catching the group’s reasonable share of that costs will be important to its long-lasting sustainability– and the Valkyries are up versus groups with years of information and precedent to support their pitch to prospective partner companies. To comprise the range, president Jess Smith has actually been working to customize exclusivity rights and fulfill online marketers’ increasing needs for sponsorship-impact measurement, consisting of an information collaboration with skill firm The Team, while doubling the group’s marketing headcount, per Sportico.

The work is settling up until now: the Valkyries are the very first females’s sports group to notch $100 million in yearly incomehelped by over 40 partners consisting of long-lasting sponsors Carmax, Rakuten, Kaiser Permanente, to name a few. Sponsorship earnings alone increased 30% year on year, according to Smith. In this discussion, she discusses how Golden State places the Valkyries to possible sponsors, and how they’re fulfilling online marketer needs for more information.

This discussion has actually been modified for length and clearness.

Brand name commitment is extremely difficult to discover.

Throughout the pandemic, there was a customer unlock. Women’s sports was little, there weren’t as lots of video games, the media worth was lower: that was how it was pitched. From 2020 that moved since customers were seeing, scores were going up, were purchasing product, and comprehended they might be part of the service, part of ladies’s sports getting more traction.

When we’re in the space speaking with brand names, we state this is a location where objective and capital can exist together. You’ve got signs, you’ve got radio, you’ve got digital advertisements, you’ve got activation chances on website for fans– whatever you can, openly, purchase anywhere and put your own twist on. That’s important. You can do that and have the neighborhood piece, the objective of growing females’s sports, and you’ll acquire unbelievable outcomes since you’re revealing up for things fans care deeply about. They not just value it, however they are going to reward you for that.

We can’t share a dollar viewpoint, however we lead the WNBA and lead females’s sports at big. Year-on-year we grew collaboration income 30% in between routine seasons. We simply revealed a collaboration with Athleta, which belongs to Gap, this month.

Exclusivity is extremely essential; it’s crucial for groups too. You’re serving the collaboration best if it’s actually clear what property you own. The enjoyable part is, truthfully, classifications are limitless. Financing can be 6 classifications. Non-traditional classifications are flooding into ladies’s sports. Sephora is a partner of ours. We’re seeing interest from “non-traditional” classifications beginning to increase. There’s constantly a balance; if you’re going to own a classification, that does feature an expense.

Iren is a brand-new partner of ours– they are an AI storage business out of Australia. We’re doing a great deal of deal with them around worldwide in addition to regional neighborhood offering through STEM shows.

What measurement asks are customers making?

occasion participation, they’re taking a look at our social fellowships and views … They’re taking a look at that as a possession from a storytelling ability and reach ability. And conventional media worth, too; we are on radio, we are on regional television, however we likewise have nationwide television protection.

A great deal of the larger brand names are doing their own measurement research studies. They desire consistency. There’s various innovations that are going to provide you various outputs for dollar quantities of media worth than others, therefore there are a great deal of independent research studies done from the partners themselves and how they simply wish to compare their portfolio in sports and out of sports.

If the measurables and KPIs you’ve settled on aren’t rather striking the mark, then you should be returning in genuine time and monitoring, how can we make certain this feels helpful for everyone progressing? That’s what a collaboration is.

How do the Valkyries fulfill those asks?

Among the advantages of being at Golden State is we have a shared resource of that collaboration insights group. We have a group of 8 individuals that are serving the total company. It’s essential to buy. You can’t just offer something and after that not have the ability to take a look at it yourself. Your partner trusts you to provide something.

Neighborhood aspects end up being or have actually ended up being more significantly demanded, and part of that’s our method. We wish to have the ability to remodel courts, admit to youth. How do we determine that? We’ve in fact partnered with a company, The Team (previously Wasserman) particularly to assist us through that. We need to be proactive there.

Are those demands more difficult to fulfill provided the Valkyries have just been betting 2 years?

The enjoyable part about the WNBA is that this league has incredible development year-over-year. Part of these discussions have to do with openly, you’re entering into an item that is going to increase the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th year. Our long-lasting partners registered with us. Next year we have 6 extra video games, so like they’ve currently benefited just merely by a 15% boost to the season since more video games suggests more chances, more signs is going to be seen in more locations. The rankings continue to increase with the brand-new broadcast contract, so those are naturally going to increase.

We are entering into these discussions with information, however when you’re on the opposite of the table and thinking of where to invest, in 3 years’ time, it’s going to be much better than it is today. That’s distinct.