This was a brilliant read. It's fascinating how a team can lean into appealing to a queer (and thus, IMO, inherently 'political') audience in its marketing, yet think an inclusive/safe space is one where fans can't be political themselves? (Or at least bring 'political' signs to games.)
Hell I haven’t lived in the Bay Area since high school and live and work NYC now. But I am all in on the Valks and have been since day 1. Such a great team.
Was it absolutely necessary to dedicate the whole first paragraph of this to painting all Caitlin Clark fans as people who have no idea who any other player are? (Despite the fact pretty much all her teammates are in the top echelon of All-Star voting.) Or assume that the reason the Fever played badly was because of the crowd, when Caitlin has struggled in all of her last three games, whether they played the Fever or not?
If you feel this paragraph is necessary to illustrate how different Valks' fans are than Fever fans, I feel like you could've maybe provided any evidence they don't know who anyone else on the roster is - and also any evidence that those fans aren't ALSO queer, which many of the ones I know are - because we don't actually know that's true.
This was a brilliant read. It's fascinating how a team can lean into appealing to a queer (and thus, IMO, inherently 'political') audience in its marketing, yet think an inclusive/safe space is one where fans can't be political themselves? (Or at least bring 'political' signs to games.)
Hell I haven’t lived in the Bay Area since high school and live and work NYC now. But I am all in on the Valks and have been since day 1. Such a great team.
This was great! I wonder how the other expansion teams will attempt to create fandom. Should be interesting to watch
I’m especially interested in the Portland Fire bc some locals apparently didn’t love the idea of that team name returning. https://www.oregonlive.com/wnba/2025/06/portlands-wnba-owners-had-one-job-dont-name-the-team-after-the-disaster-destroying-our-state-bill-oram.html
Oh I hadn't seen this. But makes a ton of sense. I guess they haven't officially announced a name yet.
As always, a fantastic read, thank you Frankie!!
Was it absolutely necessary to dedicate the whole first paragraph of this to painting all Caitlin Clark fans as people who have no idea who any other player are? (Despite the fact pretty much all her teammates are in the top echelon of All-Star voting.) Or assume that the reason the Fever played badly was because of the crowd, when Caitlin has struggled in all of her last three games, whether they played the Fever or not?
If you feel this paragraph is necessary to illustrate how different Valks' fans are than Fever fans, I feel like you could've maybe provided any evidence they don't know who anyone else on the roster is - and also any evidence that those fans aren't ALSO queer, which many of the ones I know are - because we don't actually know that's true.