The Golden State Valkyries made epic history on Thursday night, defeating the Dallas Wings 84-80 to secure a spot in the 2025 WNBA Playoffs. And with that, the Valkyries became the first expansion team in WNBA history to make the postseason, clinching their spot with three games still remaining.
Unfortunately, that didn’t guarantee a playoff game for Ballhalla. The Chase Center has become an incredible home court advantage for the Valkyries, with the best, loudest, and most present fans in the league.
But due to a scheduling conflict, Golden State will be forced to play their first-round home game elsewhere. The Chase Center is playing host to the Laver Cup, an international tennis tournament. And as a result, the Valkyries will instead head to San Jose, to play their inaugural home playoff game at the SAP Center.
While the Valkyries don’t yet know what their playoff seed will be (it could be anywhere from No. 5 to No. 8), or who their first-round opponent will be, they do know they won’t have home-court advantage. The first-round of the WNBA playoffs is a best-of-three series, with the lower seed being awarded a home game for Game 2. That game will be either Tuesday, September 16, or Wednesday, September 17.
If the Valkyries want to host a playoff game this year, they’ll need to win that series, at which point they’d advance to the semifinals, which is a best-of-five series. They won’t have any scheduling conflicts then, and would be free to host some games (Games 3 and 4 if they’re the lower seed, or Games 1, 2, and 5 if they’re they higher seed).
It’s a huge bummer to have the debut playoff game be away from Ballhalla, though it is worth noting that the Chase Center booked the Laver Cup more than two years ago, before the Golden State organization had been granted a WNBA team, so this isn’t a case of the front office not prioritizing the team, as has happened to other WNBA franchises. It’s just a good old fashioned scheduling conflict, and I’d imagine one that won’t happen again.
