Former Sparks great Alana Beard wants to see WNBA basketball played in Oakland.
A two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Beard is going on the offensive in an effort to bring an expansion team to the city, partnering with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group to try to make it happen.
Over the summer, it was reported the group was seeking a 50% stake in the Oakland Coliseum Complex — previously Oracle Arena, where the Warriors played — with the intention of bringing in a WNBA team.
Beard will lead that ownership group, which said this week it has submitted a term sheet that could secure a path for a team to play in the arena, a part of a process that has so far been met with approval from local policy makers, including the Oakland City Council, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the Joint Powers Authority Commission.
The WNBA doesn’t currently have plans to expand, but Ray Bobbit — the founder of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group — said during a virtual news conference Thursday that he and other members have been working with Christy Hedgpeth, the WNBA’s chief operating officer, and that the league has been receptive to laying the groundwork.
“I reached out to Ray about this opportunity because I’ve always envisioned and owner of a WNBA team,” Beard said. “And I kept track of everything AAESG had been doing till this point. I reached out and it made sense to partner on this, to bring something special to the community.”
In February, former Atlanta Dream guard Renee Montgomery became the first former player to become both an owner and executive of a WNBA franchise when she joined a three-member investor group that purchased the team from former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican whose opposition to the league’s racial justice measures upset many WNBA players.
“That was something that I truly admired,” said Beard, who retired in early 2020 after 15 WNBA seasons in which she was a four-time WNBA All-Star, twice an All-WNBA second-teamer, nine times a member of the All-Defensive team and a member of the Sparks’ 2016 WNBA championship team.
“The impact of seeing positive and accomplished people of color in ownership is super impactful, like, for players across all sports, and it’s inspiring in communities of color and that’s the one thing that drives me and that motivates me,” said Beard, a Louisiana native and Duke graduate who moved to the Bay Area after she retired from playing to explore a career in venture capitalism. She now is a senior associate at SVB Capital.
“This is a blueprint,” Beard said. “This is what we are sort of wanting to build, so the next generation can see us as leaders and aspire to be more than what we are. So kudos to Renee, kudos to other women who are pursuing this exact dream.”
Extremely humbled by the outpouring of support🙏🏾! Now, let’s bring the @WNBA to Oakland!! 💚💛 https://t.co/sRPX3wSUNa
— Alana Beard (@Alanabeard20) October 28, 2021
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