The Golden State Valkyries are ready to take flight.
The 13th WNBA team unveiled its brand identity on Tuesday — the same day of the 2024 season tipoff, including its team name, colors and logo. The Valkyries are the first expansion team since 2008. The big announcement was made by team president Jess Smith on "Good Morning America."
"This moment is so much bigger than Golden State. It's so much bigger than the Valkyries," Smith said while wearing a light purple suit, which turned out to be the team's color. "What we're seeing in women's sports right now is just the beginning of the sustainability and incredible growth around the game."
The name "Valkyries" represents the warrior women from Norse mythology who carried fallen soldiers from the battlefield to Valhalla, a place of bliss. In a press release, the team said the name exemplifies a nature that is "strong, bold, and fierce."
The team colors are Valkyries Violet and black. The team said the purple "symbolizes power, ambition, nobility, and women’s empowerment." The Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury also have a darker purple in their team branding with a secondary color.
The Golden State logo is a V outline to bring unity to the various elements of the design. The Bay Bridge is shown down the center in the shape of a sword, "a symbol of courage, power, and authority." There are five triangles on each side of the logo to represent the five players on each team facing each other during a game and there are 13 lines spanning the design to commemorate that the Valkyries are the 13th WNBA franchise.
The Valkyries will start play in 2025 and are the sister team to the seven-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors. The Bay Area was awarded the new franchise in October. The WNBA team's branding goes hand-in-hand with the already established tradition of winning.
"When you think of the Bay Area, you think of the region that leads the world in being innovative and progressive at the same time," Sims said. "When you think about what's happening in women's sports and being able to marry those together, it's gonna be really powerful. This ownership group likes to win in everything they do, but with intention. And that's how we're going to build the Valkyries."
The team will celebrate its establishment with a community block party on Saturday at San Francisco's Thrive City. The event will feature performances from Bay Area legends E-40 and Goapele, current stars Kehlani and P-Lo and Golden State Entertainment's Mayzin.
Kehlani also narrated the Valkyries' intro video, which zooms through the Bay Area, over a pickup basketball game and past the Chase Center, where the Valkyries will join the Warriors.
"Born from the Bay, guilded in gold, this is where legends take flight,' the multiplatinum singer said in the clip. "But our story has yet to be written."
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