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 Recreation 3.
Now, she’s a staff proprietor. Ionescu is the newest investor in Bay FC, the NWSL’s franchise in her residence space.
“I feel like I was just in high school not that long ago, playing in that community,” Ionescu informed The Athletic. “After I sit again and take into consideration how younger I’m and how briskly all the things has come, it’s fairly loopy. Particularly on this facet of issues, being an investor in an expert league. Lots of people do this a lot later of their profession. For me to be part of the enterprise facet of issues so early on, I believe it form of set me up for the longer term.
“Now being able to impact a franchise, that is pretty crazy to think about. It’s kind of like a pinch-me moment and, obviously, very humbling.”
Ionescu turning into an investor in Bay FC is sensible due to the place she’s from. The Bay Space’s personal. The pleasure of Miramonte Excessive College. 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 be taking up the position of Bay FC’s official industrial advisor, which is sensible due to her place on this fashionable panorama of sports activities and enterprise that’s carving out area for girls. Her need 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 super 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 girls’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 gradual uptick.
“It’s been pretty cool to see,” Ionescu stated, “just being a Bay area native, seeing how many season tickets they’ve been selling. Seeing 18,000 people at the home opener was insane. So many things go on in the Bay area, so you really understand (that was a display of) how many people really want to watch women’s sports.”
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 faculty basketball phenom has become a giant canine.
Ionescu was the primary girls’s basketball participant to have a unisex signature assortment with Nike. The Sabrina 2 turned essentially the most worn amongst present basketball footwear throughout the NBA. She was additionally mentored and validated by the late Kobe Bryant.
“Having someone like Sabrina brings more attention,” stated Jen Millet, Bay FC’s COO. “It sends the message that this is a real thing. It’s growing. It’s significant. We’re on a rocket ship. And if you get in now and you’re a part of this, you’re going to over-index. You’re going to out-punch whatever your investment is right now. This is a big win. She’s essentially entering her prime. She’s youthful. She’s on the upswing. We’re on the upswing.”
That is only the start of Ionescu’s rising stature within the Bay Space. Ionescu is ready as much as be a pillar in these elements: together with her sturdy roots locally; with Curry as a job mannequin; and now, with the Bay FC’s Founding 4 as her co-workers. And possibly at some point — she’s an unrestricted free agent after this WNBA season — calling Chase Heart her residence.
“Seeing 18,000 people at the home opener was insane,” Sabrina Ionescu stated of Bay FC’s debut final March. “… you really understand how many people really want to watch women’s sports.” (Michael M. Santiago / Getty Pictures)
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 girls’s sports activities for the sake of wanting good now not have to make these overtures. Increasingly, those that do spend money on girls’s sports activities achieve this as a result of they consider in its promise.
A part of Ionescu’s Bay Space legacy will probably be serving to shift that paradigm. To the place sport acknowledges sport.
“It’s been fun to finally kind of see everyone else come along to seeing that as well,” Ionescu stated. “These are all such monumental moments in what now is taking place in the rest of society, of being able to give individuals their flowers no matter if it’s a women’s sport or not. There have been so many steps that people have taken and continuously take to create that equality amongst sports. It’s fun to see the point that we’re at now, but it’s even more exciting to see where it’s going. We’re scratching the surface of where we want to go in terms of salary, respect, viewership and sponsorships.”
Ionescu has but to make her debut at San Jose’s PayPal Park for a sport. 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 Outdated English B on the left chest. And BayFC on the again.
It’s coveted merchandise in these elements. It’s given solely to buyers of the franchise and VIPs. Ionescu is each.
“Of course, I’ve got my jacket,” she beamed. “You know I got one.”
(High photograph of Sabrina Ionescu in the course of the New York Liberty’s WNBA championship parade in October: Angela Weiss / AFP through Getty Pictures)
