SAN FRANCISCO – Joe Lacob never has been one to lack confidence. The Warriors CEO guaranteed an NBA championship within the first five years of buying the franchise in July 2010 and fulfilled his promise nearly five years to the date of his declaration when Golden State won the 2015 title.
Thursday at Chase Center as the Warriors’ WNBA expansion franchise was announced for the 2025 season, Lacob vowed to carry out the same promise for his latest venture.
“I’m telling you right now, we will win a WNBA championship in the first five years of this franchise,” Lacob said.
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Golden State’s WNBA team will play at Chase Center and practice at the Warriors’ Oakland facility inside the Oakland Marriott City Center, the same place they used as their training and practice facility from 1997 through 2019. The Oakland facility also will serve as the team’s headquarters.
Regarding a team name, however, that still is to be determined. The “Golden State” moniker was used to represent the new team Thursday, though there isn’t a guarantee Golden State will be part of the name. The same goes for using “Warriors” in the team name.
Whatever the name ends up being, Lacob expects it to represent all of the Bay Area and says a decision should come sometime soon.
“I think you can probably assume it’s going to be reflective of the entirety of the Bay Area in some way,” Lacob said.
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The WNBA held bid meetings with a number of potential expansion markets over the last 18 months, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said, before ultimately deciding on the Bay Area. The three key factors Engelbert and the league’s decision makers took into account were finding a team in a city that provides a platform for deep and innovative fan engagement, has a clear path for stakeholder and franchise success, and has value for the WNBA’s content, media and entertainment goals.
Golden State’s ownership group checked all three boxes. The Warriors are the NBA’s most valuable franchise, per Forbes’ most recent valuations, and they have turned Chase Center into a year-round entertainment hub, as a venue for concerts and more outside of basketball games.
Plus, Lacob has previous experience owning a professional women’s basketball team in the Bay Area. He started his career as a sports franchise owner in 1996 as the owner of the American Basketball League’s San Jose Lasers. Lacob also was a minority owner of the ABL, a league that folded in 1998 largely because of the WNBA’s emergence.
The ABL’s end always has been a Lacob regret, and now bringing a WNBA team to the Bay Area is a “tremendous circle” to the 67-year-old. Lacob first invested in the ABL and started the Lasers for his daughters Kelly and Kayci, but admitted they barely remember the team. The Bay Area has one of the best college women’s basketball teams in the Stanford Cardinal, and the WNBA never has better ratings and revenue than right now.
“I think it’s finally the moment when we feel as an organization that we can do our best job to have a WNBA team in this building and in this market,” Lacob said. “And I also think women’s basketball — women’s sports in general — is really starting to take a big upswing. … The league is really poised to take off in a big way.
“We believe that and want to be part of that. We think this is the time to jump in. We can now come in here. We’re ready, they’re ready and this Bay Area is ready.”
The right place, the right time, the right moment. That was the sentiment shared Thursday by Lacob, Engelbert, Warriors co-executive chairman Peter Guber, Warriors president and COO Brandon Schneider, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and everybody else who welcomed the WNBA’s newest team to the Bay Area.