LOVB announces San Francisco franchise with ownership group led by Rebel Girls CEO Jes Wolfe

The GIST: Today, LOVB announced the launch of a new franchise in San Francisco set to hit the court in January 2027. Rebel Girls CEO Jes Wolfe — a prominent LOVB media partner — co-led the ownership group with growth strategist Chantell Preston as they assembled a team of all-women investors, including Olympian and LOVB founding athlete Kelsey Robinson Cook.

• Yesterday, we chatted with Wolfe, Preston, Cook, and LOVB Pro president Rosie Spaulding about why the league is choosing to launch its next team in the Bay Area and what drew them to become owners in the league.

The ownership: The group includes Bay FC co-founders, USWNT legend Abby Wambach, former NWSL star Ali Riley, journalist Arielle Chambers, and elite athletes as well as Bay Area executives. The investors we spoke with recruited values-aligned athletes and execs, with Wolfe lauding the expertise from Bay FC as the area’s first women’s sports team.

The location: Spaulding said the Bay Area had been on its list of preferred markets, with LOVB hoping to launch between two and four teams by 2027. She indicated the league evaluates different factors such as existing sports teams in the area, as well as the commercial opportunity around volleyball and women’s sports in general.

• “We know that the Bay Area really gets behind women's sports, and with knowing the opportunities with brands and partners in the Bay Area, as well as this incredible participation and success that there's been on the collegiate side, it just makes so much sense,” Spaulding said.

• Wolfe noted that men in Silicon Valley head to Golden State Warriors games to network, stating she wants to build a “deeply rich networking community of women supporting women” at LOVB games.

The learnings: LOVB boasts 234K Instagram followers and the highest engagement rate of any women’s sports league on TikTok according to Spaulding, largely by winning over Gen Z and Gen Alpha girls with BTS content and off-court stories related to financial literacy, nutrition, and mental health. Its Rebel Girls partnership is paying off too: Their YouTube series notched 1.5M views.

• While winning over social media followers is important, so is media exposure, which Spaulding is excited to build on in year two. The league has continued ESPN coverage, as well as new deals with Versant and emerging sports FAST channel Victory+.

The opportunity: According to Spaulding, LOVB has more than 30 brand partners — many in their first-ever sports partnerships — because the league is “resonating with innovative and creative brands across all categories.” Some have even extended league deals to clubs (like Yeti in Austin), which Spaulding believes could mean tech partnerships in San Francisco. Servers, meet servers.