Valkyries fans pack Rikki's for playoff games — standing ovation after a loss

Lines have formed outside Rikki's well before tip-off for playoff games, with the Castro women's sports bar packed and fans in lavender Valkyries gear pressed together. In one recent contest the Golden State Valkyries fell behind by double digits. When the final buzzer sounded, the crowd stood and cheered anyway.

Someone shouted a reference to the Valkyries' Chase Center nickname, and the room roared. The result set up the possibility of a decisive game, and the fans at Rikki's were already ready for it.

Unusual tip times have drawn criticism from women's sports bars nationwide. For Rikki's regulars, showing up is the point.

Founded in June 2025, Rikki's holds the distinction of being the San Francisco Bay Area's first bar dedicated to women's sports. Its name honors Elizabeth "Rikki" Streicher, a late Bay Area lesbian bar owner and activist. Founders Danielle Thoe, 36, and Sara Yergovich, 37, met playing club soccer and built the bar around a shared wish: a place where you never had to beg the bartender to put on a WNBA game.

It's something I didn't have growing up.— Danielle Thoe, co-founder of Rikki's

Women's sports fill the screens at Rikki's throughout the year — Stanford volleyball, Bay FC soccer, and, come December, the Professional Women's Hockey League team making its debut in San Jose. It is legally classified as a restaurant, so children can sit in the dining room; it has hosted youth sports teams and teen parties. Thoe has spoken about her desire for girls to be able to walk in, look up at the screen, and see athletes who look like them, surrounded by their jerseys and trading cards on the walls.

The crowds that fill Rikki's reflect a broader surge in women's sports interest. WNBA viewership on ABC/ESPN is up 350% over the last five years, according to SF Standard. Golden State Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber brought the Valkyries into the WNBA in 2025, making the team the league's first expansion franchise since the Atlanta Dream joined in 2008. According to CNBC, as cited by SF Standard, the franchise has crossed $100 million in revenue — a first for any WNBA team — and carries a valuation exceeding $1 billion. Every home game in the franchise's history has been a sellout.

Paula Fraser and Bev Benson, neighbors in the Castro who first crossed paths on the J-Church streetcar heading to Chase Center, have made Rikki's their go-to spot — what they call their "mini-Ballhalla" — for away games. They're part of a group chat called the "Ballhalla Babes." For Codi Feuerzeig, 30, a New York transplant living in Russian Hill, the bar was a place to find community — and by halftime of a previous game, the strangers around her had become friends.

I'm so proud of these women. I'm so proud of it. It's much more than the sport itself.— Caroline Tudor, Rikki's regular

That bond has been strengthened by the Valkyries' open support of the LGBTQ+ community. Thoe pointed to forward Gabby Williams as an example.

To have a player like Gabby Williams yelling, 'For the gays' is just incredible. To have a coach and players who are supporting trans athletes overlaps with our values and makes us really proud to represent the Valkyries and for them to be our own team.— Danielle Thoe, co-founder of Rikki's

Gwen Jewell, 63, and her wife Caroline Tudor, 61, came of age when San Francisco's lesbian bar scene was thriving and Streicher ran venues in Cole Valley and the Mission. As the years passed, they said, the number of spaces that felt welcoming to them as queer women steadily dwindled.

It just rebirthed the whole social scene.— Gwen Jewell, Rikki's regular

For bartender Jack Estrada, 37, the Valkyries hype connects to something older. She attended Sacramento Monarchs games as a child with her father; the Monarchs won a WNBA championship in 2005 before folding in 2009.

It just gave me this crazy inner-child feeling.— Jack Estrada, bartender at Rikki's

More games lie ahead. Thoe and Yergovich are preparing for big turnouts. The line will probably start before sunrise.

Why it matters — The scene at Rikki's — a standing ovation for a losing team at 9:30 on a weekday morning — captures how the Valkyries have built something rarer than a winning record: a fanbase for whom the sport itself is the point.

Reported by sfgate.com, newsylist.com, sfstandard.com, sfchronicle.com