The final 12 months for Sabrina Ionescu have been like a film.
Final February, she lit up the NBA All-Star stage in a one-on-one 3-point shootout together with her position mannequin and pal Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors. In June, the Sabrina 2 dropped, the second version of her signature Nike shoe — embraced by women and men hoopers. In August, she received a gold medal within the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris. In October, she received a WNBA championship with the New York Liberty, a run that included an epic game-winning 3-pointer in Sport 3.
Now, she’s a workforce proprietor. Ionescu is the newest investor in Bay FC, the NWSL’s franchise in her dwelling space.
“I really feel like I used to be simply in highschool not that way back, enjoying in that group,” Ionescu advised The Athletic. “Once I sit again and take into consideration how younger I’m and how briskly the whole lot has come, it’s fairly loopy. Particularly on this aspect of issues, being an investor in knowledgeable league. Lots of people do this a lot later of their profession. For me to be part of the enterprise aspect of issues so early on, I believe it sort of set me up for the long run.
“Now having the ability to affect a franchise, that’s fairly loopy to consider. It’s sort of like a pinch-me second and, clearly, very humbling.”
Ionescu turning into an investor in Bay FC is smart due to the place she’s from. The Bay Space’s personal. The delight of Miramonte Excessive Faculty. And, with apologies to the Liberty, the hope of many to be the near-future face of the brand new Golden State Valkyries.
Ionescu can also be taking up the position of Bay FC’s official business advisor, which is smart due to her place on this trendy panorama of sports activities and enterprise that’s carving out house for girls. Her want to be hands-on with serving to Bay FC maximize that potential is a coup for the Bay Space’s NWSL squad.
Loyal to the soil.
We’re excited to welcome 2024 WNBA Champion, Olympic Gold Medalist, 3x WNBA All-Star and the Bay’s personal, @sabrina_i20 to the household as Investor & Business Advisor.
📰: https://t.co/utesbXJOmy#BayFC x #BayAreaUnite pic.twitter.com/RdsCcQVaFD
— Bay Soccer Membership (@wearebayfc) March 3, 2025
Conceptually, it’s a great marriage. A Bay Space-bred famous person becoming a member of the Bay Space franchise within the mixture of the altering panorama of Bay Space sports activities. With Bay FC established, the Valkyries coming, and even the Oakland Soul — of the USL W League — rising, this area is more and more a flex of the viability of ladies’s sports activities.
Bay FC — which set the NWSL file with 11 wins by an enlargement membership and made the playoffs in its inaugural season — completed prime three within the league in ticket income and No. 1 in merchandise gross sales. After promoting out the house opener final March, making a second in Bay Space historical past, it’s been a gentle uptick.
“It’s been fairly cool to see,” Ionescu mentioned, “simply being a Bay space native, seeing what number of season tickets they’ve been promoting. Seeing 18,000 individuals on the dwelling opener was insane. So many issues go on within the Bay space, so you actually perceive (that was a show of) how many individuals actually need to watch ladies’s sports activities.”
Including Ionescu to the possession — together with Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Andrew Luck and Manu Ginobili — suggests the expansion potential. A younger pioneer is now within the combine. The school basketball phenom has changed into a giant canine.
Ionescu was the primary ladies’s basketball participant to have a unisex signature assortment with Nike. The Sabrina 2 grew to become probably the most worn amongst present basketball footwear throughout the NBA. She was additionally mentored and validated by the late Kobe Bryant.
“Having somebody like Sabrina brings extra consideration,” mentioned Jen Millet, Bay FC’s COO. “It sends the message that it is a actual factor. It’s rising. It’s important. We’re on a rocket ship. And if you happen to get in now and also you’re part of this, you’re going to over-index. You’re going to out-punch no matter your funding is true now. This can be a massive win. She’s primarily coming into her prime. She’s youthful. She’s on the upswing. We’re on the upswing.”
That is just the start of Ionescu’s rising stature within the Bay Space. Ionescu is about as much as be a pillar in these elements: together with her sturdy roots locally; with Curry as a task mannequin; and now, with the Bay FC’s Founding 4 as her co-workers. And perhaps in the future — she’s an unrestricted free agent after this WNBA season — calling Chase Middle her dwelling.
“Seeing 18,000 individuals on the dwelling opener was insane,” Sabrina Ionescu mentioned of Bay FC’s debut final March. “… you actually perceive how many individuals actually need to watch ladies’s sports activities.” (Michael M. Santiago / Getty Photographs)
Ionescu is bringing a special paradigm. One the place ballers are ballers and sports activities are sports activities and the place high quality issues greater than id.
It’s been one of many components bolstering the claims of Bay FC’s potential. Manufacturers that previously simply related to ladies’s sports activities for the sake of trying good now not must make these overtures. Increasingly more, those that do put money into ladies’s sports activities accomplish that as a result of they consider in its promise.
A part of Ionescu’s Bay Space legacy might be serving to shift that paradigm. To the place recreation acknowledges recreation.
“It’s been enjoyable to lastly sort of see everybody else come alongside to seeing that as nicely,” Ionescu mentioned. “These are all such monumental moments in what now could be happening in the remainder of society, of having the ability to give people their flowers regardless of if it’s a ladies’s sport or not. There have been so many steps that folks have taken and repeatedly take to create that equality amongst sports activities. It’s enjoyable to see the purpose that we’re at now, but it surely’s much more thrilling to see the place it’s going. We’re scratching the floor of the place we need to go when it comes to wage, respect, viewership and sponsorships.”
Ionescu has but to make her debut at San Jose’s PayPal Park for a recreation. That can possible occur subsequent month when Bay FC begins its 2025 NWSL marketing campaign. However she’s already official like a referee whistle. Stamped with the swaggiest seal. A letterman jacket, luxuriously thick. Navy blue just like the peacoat of a longshoreman with white trim and a white Previous English B on the left chest. And BayFC on the again.
It’s coveted merchandise in these elements. It’s given completely to buyers of the franchise and VIPs. Ionescu is each.
“In fact, I’ve bought my jacket,” she beamed. “You already know I bought one.”
(Prime photograph of Sabrina Ionescu in the course of the New York Liberty’s WNBA championship parade in October: Angela Weiss / AFP by way of Getty Photographs)