Expansion is always a hot topic among WNBA fans – and one of the hidden storylines of this past season were how efforts became known about the prospect of bringing a WNBA team to the Bay Area.
Joe Lacob of the Golden State Warriors has made countless comments expressing his belief that the Bay Area could be a lucrative market for the W and one of the ABL’s teams was the San Jose Lasers.
On Wednesday, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG), the entity that seeks to bring a WNBA team to Oakland, announced that 16-year WNBA veteran Alana Beard, was to spearhead its efforts.
Beard, a native of Louisiana and alum of Duke, is a former Washington Mystics player and also spent a tenure with the Los Angeles Sparks, where she won a championship in 2016.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
WNBA Legend Alana Beard @Alanabeard20 to lead ownership group for Oakland WNBA proposal. Beard has officially partnered with the AASEG to bring a WNBA expansion team to Oakland!
Virtual Zoom Press Conference tomorrow at 10am PThttps://t.co/PL1pyGufCi pic.twitter.com/fcAmGnC6EH
— AASEG Oakland (@AASEGOakland) October 27, 2021
I think what I’m most, sort of, excited about is working with an inspiring group of just like-minded professionals. As a professional athlete who’s sort of made that transition into the business world, I understand now more than at any point the importance of having just a great team and strong partnerships.
–Alana Beard
AASEG held a virtual press conference to announce the news and a number of notables were also on hand, virtually, in Oakland for the announcement. Among those were Gina-Johnson Lillard, the mother of NBA and Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard.
Alicia Garza, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter organization and Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland’s vice mayor also were on hand. One name that would be very familiar to WNBA fans was Penny Toler, the former general manager of the Sparks, who left the organization amidst filing a discrimination lawsuit against said organization.
AASEG’s founder, Ray Bobbitt, mentioned that the group has been in contact with Christy Hedgpeth, the WNBA’s COO and that it wants to be ready for when commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the league begins its expansion process. Expansion is seen as a method for WNBA/NBA owners to recoup lost revenue from the coronavirus pandemic.
When Beard retired, she made her move to the Bay Area to begin her transition into the business world in the Silicon Valley region with an emphasis in venture capital. She mentioned during the press conference that she first made the contact with Bobbitt.
I reached out to Ray about this opportunity because I’ve always envisioned, sort of, being an owner in a WNBA team. And I … kept track of everything that AASEG had been doing up to this point … it just made sense to come together to partner on this, to bring something special to the community of Oakland.
–Alana Beard
We are excited to hear all the ideas for names of our prospective new Oakland WNBA team. We will definitely be involving the community in the process!
However let’s make one thing clear: The team name will have OAKLAND across the jerseys.
Not Bay Area. Not West Coast.
Oakland!
— AASEG Oakland (@AASEGOakland) October 28, 2021
As the team will proudly embrace the Oakland name and brand, Beard has always been unapologetic throughout her life and career as far as what her own brand is.
It’s authentic. It’s about being authentic to who I am and what I’m about and what I’m trying to do and execute on.
–Alana Beard
AASEG’s bid for a WNBA team as well as bringing on Beard to partner with highlights another important element of the effort – diversity in sports ownership, especially in terms of Black women.
We have seen the extraordinary step that was taken earlier this year when Renee Montgomery was part of an ownership group that bought the Atlanta Dream from ex-Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler and Mary Brock after the former lost a Senate election to Reverend Raphael Warnock, who was lifted to victory with a major boost from WNBA players.
Renee Montgomery … kind of set the standard there. She’s another individual that I really followed after she retired. She was doing a lot of work in the community around social justice and she decided to retire to take an ownership role within the Atlanta Dream. So, that was something that I truly admired.
–Alana Beard
The news also comes when Oakland as a sports town finds itself at a crossroads. The Raiders (Las Vegas) and Warriors (San Francisco) have left Oakland in recent seasons and the A’s are negotiating with Alameda County for a possible new stadium.
Beard believes that with women’s sports on the rise that this time is ripe to recognize how lucrative the market truly is within the realm.
You think about Kansas City (NWSL) and what they’ve done, sort of, in terms of dedicating an entire arena that costs $70 million for women’s sports. I think people are starting to understand the power that women, sort of, bring to the picture here. And when you talk about the league and … the increase in viewership – 49% in the 25th year. There was a record of online engagement across all social media platforms and a record in merchandise sales in 2021. So I cannot think of a better time than right now which is why I was so excited when this opportunity came about. People are excited about the WNBA and the incredible women that are a part of it.
–Alana Beard
Among the revelations made during the presser was that there are currently no competing bids with AASEG’s, that there are no remaining municipal hurdles with the city of Oakland and an arena has already been secured for a team.
That arena would be the Oakland Arena – the former Oracle Arena that was the previous home court of the Golden State Warriors before they moved to Chase Center in San Francisco.
The team in Oakland, which is the heart of the entire Northern California megaregion, will of course be Oakland-first and putting forward our Oakland pride and, absolutely, intending to welcome and support the market for the entire region and beyond.
–Rebecca Kaplan, vice mayor of Oakland
Kaplan says that an advantage of the arena is how easily accessible it will be via various modes of transportation – including via Oakland International Airport – a seven minute drive from the arena. The venue also has its own Bay Area Rapid Transit station.
We have easy access by freeway, by BART, by Capital Corridor, by airport. And so people can come from throughout the entire greater region.
–Rebecca Kaplan, vice mayor of Oakland
Bolstering the case for a WNBA team to be placed in Oakland is the Bay Area’s support of women’s basketball over the years at the college level. Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, both current Sparks, played their college ball at Stanford, one of the premier women’s basketball programs in the country. Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty, also hails from the Bay Area.
We have a long history of supporting women’s basketball at Cal, at Stanford, and other local colleges and high schools …
–Rebecca Kaplan, vice mayor of Oakland
In addition to its long history of supporting sports teams, Oakland also has a proud history of being a shining beacon of the movement for civil rights and social justice – a movement that has been thoroughly embraced by the women of the WNBA, a majority Black league.
I do see this as a team that will be proudly centered in Oakland and with a commitment to social justice and racial justice that has been a central part of Oakland’s formation and identity.
–Rebecca Kaplan, vice mayor of Oakland
An Oakland team would not be the first time that the WNBA would have made a foray into Northern California.
WNBA fans fondly remember the days of the Sacramento Monarchs – an Original Eight team that was the sister franchise of the Sacramento Kings and won a championship in 2005.
Kaplan mentioned how the fond memories of Monarchs fans could translate into support for an Oakland team and that the region’s reintroduction to WNBA basketball would be a welcome sight for fans that would no longer have to make the daunting trek to Los Angeles for games.
There is an entire greater surrounding region that doesn’t have another team … the closest one would be the LA Sparks which is a bit of a drive away. And, so we do see the entire Northern California region being both accessible to this location, which is a very central location that’s easy to get to on every mode of transportation and also that there is a level of interest and excitement throughout that whole region.
–Rebecca Kaplan, vice mayor of Oakland
