Angel City FC exec Jess Smith to head Warriors' WNBA team

Jess Smith has been named president of the Golden State Warriors' new WNBA team, the organization announced Tuesday.

Smith takes the helm following a four-year run as head of revenue of the NWSL's Angel City FC, while also spending previous stints with the San Jose Earthquakes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Oakland Athletics. She has over 18 years of experience in professional sports.

Smith will officially start Feb. 14.

"She thinks really big in terms of what this can become," Warriors president and COO Brandon Schneider told ESPN. "She's not thinking 'we want to be sort of incrementally better.' I mean, sure, but it's thinking much bigger in terms of what this team can become, what this league can become, what women's sports can become."

The Golden State WNBA team -- announced in October as the first expansion franchise since 2008 -- will become the league's 13th club when it commences competition in 2025.

Smith helped build Angel City into a commercial powerhouse, reportedly bringing in mid-eight figures in revenue in its first year, numbers Schneider said "are much better than any other team in that league or in the WNBA for that matter."

Smith also introduced multiple innovative sponsorship models at Angel City, including one that reallocated 10% of sponsorship dollars directly back into the Los Angeles community. The club, which has garnered attention with its high-profile owners and impressive attendance numbers (averaging over 19,000 fans this past year), declared a goal of becoming the first women's sports team with a billion-dollar valuation.

Smith's track record with Angel City impressed the Warriors, Schneider said, as the organization launches its WNBA team at a pivotal time for the league -- one where the tremendous talent level is complemented by massive opportunities for growth on the business side.

"I do believe that with my expertise coming from being probably the most successful commercial women's brand in the world within sport, coupled with what the Warriors have built, and then all of us being connected to the Bay Area and willing to bring that together, that it will be unstoppable," Smith told ESPN.

The Warriors have set lofty goals, on and off the court, for their WNBA team from the get-go. The day the expansion team was announced, owner Joe Lacob guaranteed a title within five years and proclaimed they can be No. 1 in the league in revenue. Schneider reiterated the Warriors are not just starting a team to do it, but that "we want to be the best."

The Golden State WNBA team will play home games in the state-of-the-art Chase Center in San Francisco and have its team headquarters at the Warriors former practice facility in Oakland -- a pivotal move in a landscape where player experience has assumed increased importance. Smith -- a fan of the WNBA since its inception -- sees the Warriors' tenacity in winning and excelling commercially in the NBA rolling over into their WNBA franchise.

"That's what I was looking for in the initial conversations. They were candidly like, 'What are your intentions in women's sports?'" Smith said. "'Are you building an incredible basketball team that's going to be successful, or are you building a legacy that has the opportunity to be that and so much more, by being the first, by being the best,' because that's what I want to be a part of."

The Warriors and Smith signaled a shared aim for the new franchise to chart their own path in this watershed moment for women's basketball and women's sports more broadly, something they hope other organizations will look to follow.

"We think that we can learn a lot from other WNBA teams and other sports teams more broadly, but we also want to do things differently," Schneider said. "We don't want to just sort of fall into line with how everyone else has done it. We want to push things forward."

"It's about of course being respectful to the incredible history and work that's been done to date, and yet being relentless in the fact that it's not good enough," Smith added. "The growth mindset of when we do great, we're also going to think that's not good enough, and then we're going to do better, and we're going to think that's not good enough. Just the mindset of wanting more and more and knowing we're capable of doing that together."

Both emphasized community will be a central pillar of the franchise, with Smith adding the organization will look to have "equity at the forefront." Golden State will look to finalize the team name and branding over the next few months and hire a general manager to oversee basketball operations.

Smith will fill out her team of people "relentless in what this [product] means" and "feel connected to why this matters," she said.

In the meantime, 4,000 people have already put down deposits for season tickets, according to Schneider. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert indicated an expansion draft will be held before the end of the calendar year.

"It's the best region to do it, best ownership group to do it with," Smith said of the expansion team. "I think that's going to signal an incredible amount of growth from the current teams and any new ones that would come in, and then you look forward to things that the league has on hand like the broadcast agreement and the CBA, and I think you're about to see a cascading year-over-year opportunity for growth for all the stakeholders."