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Tag: WNBA Western Conference

  • Chase signs on as jersey patch sponsor of Golden State Valkyries, the Bay Area’s WNBA expansion team

    Chase signs on as jersey patch sponsor of Golden State Valkyries, the Bay Area’s WNBA expansion team

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    A general overall aerial view of the Chase Center on December 31, 2023 in San Francisco, California. 

    Kirby Lee | Getty Images

    JPMorgan Chase has signed a multiyear sponsorship deal to be the first founding partner of Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s next expansion team.

    The agreement will see the Chase Freedom logo appear as the Valkyries’ jersey patch when the team begins play in 2025. Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, owners of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, paid a $50 million expansion fee to land the rights to a team in California’s Bay Area in October 2023.

    The multi-year deal is valued as a seven-figure investment, making it one of the largest jersey patch deals in the WNBA, according to industry sources. While the Valkyries’ jersey has not been revealed yet, the deal will see the Chase Freedom logo appear on the left shoulder of both the home and away jerseys. Both the Valkyries and Chase declined to comment on deal terms.

    Jess Smith, president of the Golden State Valkyries, said as the team was looking to secure a sponsor for one of its key assets, finding a partner that “wanted to enhance our fan experience” was critical. Chase has been a long-term partner of the Warriors, signing a 20-year deal for the naming rights to the team’s arena in 2016 worth at least a reported $300 million, then the largest naming rights deal in the NBA. The Valkyries will also play its games at the Chase Center, located in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.

    “This isn’t just a billboard – when someone sees Chase and the Valkyries together, I want them to know why,” Smith said.

    Carla Hassan, JPMorgan Chase chief marketing officer, said that the Bay Area is a “priority market” for the financial services company, with more than 5,000 employees and two million customers in the region, presenting another opportunity to build on the work it’s already doing with the Warriors and the arena.

    This particular deal will also help Chase further elevate the Freedom brand, with a focus around empowering small businesses and driving financial literacy in the community, Hassan said.

    While JPMorgan Chase has a vast sports sponsorship portfolio that includes naming rights deals with MLS’s Inter Miami and MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks as well as significant sponsorships with Madison Square Garden and the U.S. Open, among others, Hassan said partnering with a WNBA team “was a really good opportunity for us.”

    “There is no denying the growth of women’s sports right now,” Hassan said, noting that the company has long been a sponsor of female athletes and women’s sporting events and recently provided financing for NWSL club Kansas City Current’s new stadium, the first stadium built specifically for a professional women’s team. “We’re excited to work with the Valkyries to really continue to drive this meteoric rise we’re seeing right now.”

    The WNBA has played a huge role in that growth and has benefited from it as well. At the league’s halfway point in July, viewership was up 67% and on pace to be the most-watched regular season since 2002. Attendance was up 27% year-over-year, on pace to be the highest average attendance since 2018. Partnership revenue is up double digits year-over-year and is at an all-time-high, while merchandise sales have surged thanks to the popularity of new players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, as well as established stars like A’ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu.

    “We are outperforming every single metric,” Colie Edison, chief growth officer for the WNBA, told CNBC in July.

    The Valkyries, the WNBA’s first expansion team since 2008, have not only tapped into that growth, but also the popularity of basketball in the Bay Area.

    Smith said the team already has more than 17,000 season ticket deposits, which is a record for a U.S. women’s sports team before its first season. Chase Center can seat around 18,000 fans. The Valkyries are also seeing strong demand for merchandise, even though the team has only released its logo and has no players yet.

    “The W right now is unstoppable,” Smith said. “I truly believe this league will be one of the most powerful sports leagues in the world.”

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  • Brittney Griner signs one-year deal with Phoenix Mercury, according to reports | CNN

    Brittney Griner signs one-year deal with Phoenix Mercury, according to reports | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    After spending nearly 10 months imprisoned in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner is making her return to basketball in the upcoming season, signing a one-year deal with the Phoenix Mercury, according to ESPN and The Athletic, who cited multiple unnamed sources.

    The two-time Olympic gold medalist was released in December – after spending nearly 300 days in Russian custody – in a prisoner exchange with Russia.

    And as soon as she was back home, she vowed to play in the WNBA again.

    “It feels so good to be home! The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn,” she wrote in a December post on Instagram. “I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help.”

    “I also want to make one thing very clear: I intend to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon,” Griner said.

    Griner – who for years had played in the WNBA off-season for a Russian women’s basketball team – was arrested on drug smuggling charges at an airport in the Moscow region in February 2022. Her detention, which became an international cause during a tense time in relations between the US and Russia, was deemed wrongful by American officials.

    And despite her testimony that she had inadvertently packed the cannabis oil that was found in her luggage, she was sentenced to nine years in prison in early August and was moved to a penal colony in the Mordovia republic in mid-November after losing her appeal.

    The 32-year-old last played with the Mercury in 2021, helping lead the team to the WNBA Finals, which they lost to the Chicago Sky.

    Before that, the seven-time All-Star had played all nine seasons with the franchise since being selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft.

    Phoenix are scheduled to open the season on the road against the Los Angeles Sparks on May 19. The team will play their first home game against the Sky on May 21.

    CNN has reached out to Griner’s representatives and the Phoenix Mercury but did not immediately hear back.

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  • Brittney Griner is back home and she intends to play basketball this season | CNN

    Brittney Griner is back home and she intends to play basketball this season | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Brittney Griner departed a medical military facility in Texas on Friday and returned home, and she intends to play basketball for her team this season, according to her Instagram feed.

    For the two-time Olympic gold medalist, who was released last week in a prisoner swap after nearly 300 days in Russian custody, the day marks another step in her reintegration into American life.

    “It feels so good to be home! The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn,” she said in an Instagram post. “I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help.”

    Griner said she was “grateful to each person who advocated for me” and she mentioned Paul Whelan, whose release could not be secured in the prisoner swap that brought her home.

    “President Biden, you brought me home and I know you are committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too,” she said. “I will use my platform to do whatever I can to help you. I also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole.”

    Griner took off from Kelly Field in San Antonio around 11 a.m. on Friday, CNN confirmed via her agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas.

    As she boarded the plane, Griner was greeted by Phoenix Mercury GM Jim Pitman, Vince Kozar president of the Phoenix Mercury and her Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi, all of whom made a surprise appearance to welcome her home.

    Griner is heading back to Arizona, though her representatives would not confirm exactly where, citing security concerns. CNN previously reported that Griner and her wife, Cherelle, had already made plans to move upon her return to the United States.

    “I also want to make one thing very clear: I intend to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon,” Griner said.

    Griner’s detention, after Russian officials found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, became an international cause during a delicate time in relations between Washington and Moscow. US officials deemed it a wrongful detention.

    She had traveled to Russia to play basketball in the WNBA offseason and was arrested on drug smuggling charges at an airport in the Moscow region.

    Despite her testimony that she had inadvertently packed the cannabis oil in her luggage, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in early August and was moved to a penal colony in the Mordovia republic in mid-November after losing her appeal.

    The Phoenix Mercury center became a pawn in Russia’s war in Ukraine and returned to the US on December 9 after a prisoner swap for notorious convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

    Griner stayed at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for a week for routine evaluation. She has been staying with her wife, Cherelle Griner, in a residential facility on the base. Her arrest and conviction brought attention to the plight of other Americans in Russian custody, including Whelan and Trevor Reed, who returned to the US in April after a nearly three-year ordeal.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • Russian court sets Brittney Griner appeal date for Oct. 25

    Russian court sets Brittney Griner appeal date for Oct. 25

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    MOSCOW — A Russian court on Monday set Oct. 25 as the date for American basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.

    Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

    The Moscow region court said it will hear her appeal.

    Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage, but testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.

    Her February arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At the time, Griner, recognized as one of the greatest players in WNBA history, was returning to Russia, where she played during the U.S. league’s offseason.

    The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years, and Griner’s lawyers argued after the conviction that the punishment was excessive. They said in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.

    Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained” — a charge that Russia has sharply rejected.

    Reflecting the growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.

    Blinken didn’t elaborate, but The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the “merchant of death.”

    The White House said it has not yet received a productive response from Russia to the offer.

    Russian diplomats have refused to comment on the U.S. proposal and urged Washington to discuss the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements.

    U.S. President Joe Biden met last month with Cherelle Griner, the wife of Brittney Griner, as well as the player’s agent, Lindsay Colas. Biden also sat down separately with Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan’s sister.

    The White House said after the meetings that the president stressed to the families his “continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely.”

    The Biden administration carried out a prisoner swap in April, with Moscow releasing Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for the U.S. releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.

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