The Golden State Valkyries, the league’s newest franchise, will debut on Friday, May 16 against the Los Angeles Sparks at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif. It is the last of three games scheduled for opening day, following the Atlanta Dream at the Washington Mystics and the Minnesota Lynx at the Dallas Wings, who will debut their top pick from the 2025 WNBA Draft.
The fifth annual Commissioner’s Cup is set to run between June 1 and 17. It will include 36 games and each team will face every conference opponent once. The top teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences will compete in the Commissioner Cup Championship on Tuesday, July 1. The winner will receive a $500,000 prize pool as well as $120,000 in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Coinbase. The latter includes $5,000 for each player in the championship game.
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The league’s 21st AT&T WNBA All-Star Game will be played on Saturday, July 19 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the home of the Indiana Fever. This will be the first time that the franchise hosts All-Star weekend.
“We look forward to tipping off the WNBA’s 29th season in May of 2025 and continuing to build on the success of last season, when the WNBA delivered its most-watched Draft and All-Star Game, and set records for viewership, attendance, digital consumption and merchandise sales,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in the league release. “The upcoming free agency period and the 2025 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm will create a tremendous level of excitement, and we are also looking forward to the expansion Golden State Valkyries taking the court for the first time.”
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A few of the other top dates to circle on your calendar include May 30, when Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White faces her former team, the Connecticut Sun, and June 7 when Natalie Nakase coaches the Valkyries against the Las Vegas Aces where she served as an assistant coach last year. The WNBA champion New York Liberty will face runner-up Minnesota four times this season. The first is scheduled for July 30.
The WNBA also announced in the release that teams may begin negotiating with free agents on Jan. 21 and free agents may begin signing with teams on Feb. 1.
