Women's basketball will do well in Savannah—if we lean in
If we embrace it, it will flourish
San Francisco wasn’t the first city to get a WNBA team. In fact they were late to the game. In fact it took nearly 30 years for it to happen. But it happened and the city leaned in.
In 2025, in the first year the San Francisco Valkyries managed to smash records, selling out every single home game.
https://valkyries.wnba.com/news/valkyries-set-all-time-wnba-attendance-record-20250906
They even managed to unofficially rename the arena, dubbing it Ballhalla, to which the fans and the team have aggressively leaned on.
This wasn’t by happenstance. This was due to the city fully embracing a new team. The only other sport in San Francisco’s metropolitan area is baseball, with the San Francisco 49ers playing some 60 miles south of the actual city. The arena was ready for a new league, and the city was apparently ready as well.
Change and new things are either embraced or shunned. When the Bananas adopted Banana ball, it was viewed as a chastising of the old ways of baseball. But watching baseball now in lieu of the new rules (yes, bunting still sucks), you can see how the new era needed the change.
In the court (no pun intended) of public opinion, the crowds have said they like the new rules, so much to the tune of selling out ballparks and football stadiums coast to coast.
Let’s lean in and embrace our new team, the same way we adorn our Ghost Pirate and Bananas gear. We can create our own Ballhalla.