She Got Fans to Pay $ 3,900 for A Courtside Seat

BY RACHEL BACHMAN

When Jess Smith took over as president of Golden State’s WNBA expansion franchise in early 2024, fans approached her with one request: Please make it cool.

“They wanted the premier sports experience—in women’s sports,” Smith said. No minor-league vibes. No being overshadowed by the men’s team.

The Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s first new team since 2008, adopted fierce female-warrior branding and a violet color distinct from the blue-andgold of their brother NBA team, the Golden State Warriors. They’re the first WNBA team to sell 10,000 season tickets. Courtside seats to their first-ever game Friday night were priced as high as $3,900.

The Valkyries plan to make more money than any other women’s sports team in the world, said Joe Lacob, majority owner of the Valkyries and Warriors. Revenue in year one for the women’s team will be more than double an analyst estimate of $30 million, he said.

Smith, 39, worked her way through jobs in two minor leagues and three major men’s leagues, learning everything from ticket sales to corporate sponsorship. She earned a reputation as a tireless, relatable saleswoman. And after helping turn women’s soccer team Angel City FC into an overnight success, she’s become the industry leader in driving up the value of women’s sports.

At the Valkyries, she’s determined to help raise revenue and eventually player salaries, while keeping the game accessible to fans. Season tickets start at $25 a game.

Smith grew up in Auburn, N.Y., a natural athlete who was enthralled with sports from the start. “By 6 years old, Jessica would ask to watch ESPN,” said her mother, Lynne Scott.

Scott had Jess when she was 17, and the father wasn’t in the picture. Scott later married and had another daughter, Samantha. But she said she ended up getting an order of protection from her husband, and sometimes fled with her kids to another house.

Scott worked as an electronic technician but always had a side job or two, and her oldest daughter took up that work ethic from age 11.

“She would be asked to dog-sit, babysit, ‘Can you come rake my leaves?’, whatever it was,” Scott said. “If somebody was offering her a dollar, she was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll be right there.’ ” Smith later waited tables and learned that some of her customers worked in New York City and summered in the Finger Lakes—a lifestyle she’d never seen before.

Smith, who often felt selfconscious about lacking trendy clothes, loved that playing sports meant everyone wore the same uniform. She excelled at softball and basketball, and her job helped her buy $100 sneakers.

When it came time to go to college, the A-student opted for the least expensive option: SUNY Oswego. Lynne, unfamiliar with college costs, soon faced a stark choice. She could pay the first bill from Oswego, $1,500, or the mortgage on the house in a comfortable neighborhood she’d scrimped and stretched to buy. Lynne paid the tuition. She lost the house.

“My mom did an amazing job for the means that she had,” Smith said.

Not long after college, Smith landed a position as an account manager with the Oakland A’s, selling season and group tickets. She had the moxie to stop A’s President Michael Crowley in the hallway and ask him for a 30-minute meeting.

“She wanted to understand how all the parts fit together, both on the business side and on the baseball side,” Crowley said.

She earned a master’s remotely in Ohio University’s well-respected sports administration program, and “the day after she graduated, I think half a dozen teams were calling her,” recalled her husband, Scott Smith.

The couple moved to Ohio, where Smith landed her first management role as director of corporate development at the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets.

In 2020, when she joined Angel City of the National Women’s Soccer League, player salaries were in the low five figures. Teams were still doing value-in-kind sponsorships, trading pallets of sports drinks for signage in the stadium.

When analysts said Los Angeles-based Angel City might be able to sell its front-of-jersey sponsorship for $1 million—far more than any previous women’s team— they presented it as a coup.

Smith was crestfallen. She thought a team boasting majority- female ownership was worth more than that. She held out. In 2021, Angel City persuaded DoorDash to pay “significantly more” than $1 million, said Smith, who had risen to head of revenue.

Other teams were awestruck and jealous of what Angel City was doing, recalled Vicky Lynch, then the chief business officer of the NWSL’s Chicago Stars. But, Lynch said, “They did raise the bar, and everybody had to keep up with them—or at least try to.”

One innovation Smith led was directing 10% of all sponsorship dollars to community groups—like a program to combat food insecurity. In an industry known for operating at a loss, it was a risk, said Julie Uhrman, Angel City co-founder and president.

“The model quickly proved its worth,” Uhrman said. “It helped us grow sponsorship value, attract brands that had never before invested in women’s sports— or even in sports at all—and position Angel City as a pioneering, purpose-driven brand.”

In its first season, 2022, Angel City sold $11 million in sponsorships and led the league in attendance. With revenues rising across the league, minimum player salaries are up nearly 40%.

The team’s value skyrocketed. Last summer, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, bought a controlling interest in Angel City at a $250 million valuation. It was, at the time, a record for any women’s team.

By the time Smith took the reins at Golden State in early 2024, Iowa star Caitlin Clark was on the way to becoming NCAA basketball’s all-time leading scorer and a cultural sensation.

In Clark’s rookie year in the WNBA, Indiana Fever games became hot tickets. Leaguewide viewership on ESPN networks rose 170% to an average of 1.2 million a game. As the WNBA jumped into the mainstream, one shock to the public was Clark’s salary: $77,000.

Now, players and the league are in negotiations for a new collective-bargaining agreement, which is expected to include big salary in--creases.

“For the league to do well, for the players to make the compensation they want to have, it has to be the whole league,” Lacob said. “What we’re trying to do is do it right. To show what can be done. To set the standard.”

Smith is talking to team sponsors like JPMorgan Chase and Sephora about making some tickets, meals and transportation free for needy fans. She wants families like the one she grew up in to also have access to the Valkyries’ cool.