{"id":477691,"date":"2025-12-29T13:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T13:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/477691\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T13:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T13:20:13","slug":"which-bay-area-sports-team-is-feeling-best-entering-2026-here-are-our-power-rankings-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/477691\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Bay Area sports team is feeling best entering 2026? Here are our power rankings \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, around this time, this paper of record made a bold declaration: The San Jose Sharks, of all teams, were winning the vibe wars<\/a> of the Bay Area sports world.<\/p>\n

Here we are, at the end of another year, and it\u2019s time to take stock again.<\/p>\n

If 2024 was defined by turmoil, with the losses of Willie Mays and the Oakland A\u2019s, then consider 2025 a tablesetter for an even bigger turnaround in 2026. Sure, we hosted NBA All-Star weekend. How\u2019d you like a Super Bowl and six World Cup matches? Sign us up.<\/p>\n

In fact, the region\u2019s sports scene reflects the trend of the Bay Area at large: On the rise again.<\/p>\n

Look no further than the ole\u2019 Coliseum, which found a second (third? fourth? fifth?) life as a destination for world-class cricket<\/a> and soccer<\/a> \u2014 and the East Bay\u2019s biggest party of the year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And who can miss the A\u2019s when we\u2019ve got the B\u2019s<\/a>? While one team toils up the I-80 corridor, the other drew big crowds and lots of fun to Raimondi Park, powering through the Pioneer League in its second season to deliver the region\u2019s lone championship.<\/p>\n

Of course, no lookback is complete without reflecting on who we lost. It would be difficult to find someone who touched more lives in the Bay Area sporting community<\/a> than John Beam, who was tragically shot and killed<\/a> on the campus of Laney College in November.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to continue to spin it forward, though, and rank the Bay Area\u2019s pro teams based on one criteria: Who would you rather be heading into 2026? Looking at each team\u2019s 2025, and the direction they are trending entering the new year, there\u2019s a clear favorite.<\/p>\n

1. GOLDEN STATE VALKYRIES<\/p>\n

Trending:<\/strong> Up<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> Violet was the color of the year around the Bay Area in 2025, and the summer belonged to the WNBA expansion franchise\u2019s sensational first season. The Valkyries are already an asset in Joe Lacob\u2019s portfolio, boasting one of the league\u2019s highest franchise valuations and its top attendance \u2014 selling out all 24 games at Chase Center. Head coach Natalie Nakase turned a rotating group of castaways into a surprise playoff team, and the franchise is well-positioned to add a star to its roster with Lacob\u2019s deep pockets and desire to win. One complication: It\u2019s not yet guaranteed that there will be games in 2026, with owners and the players union locked in a labor battle over the new collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n

2. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS<\/p>\n

Trending:<\/strong> Down<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> A year ago, the Niners were still healing from a loss in Super Bowl LVIII, contract drama with Brandon Aiyuk and a litany of injuries. The IR is as long and star-studded as ever, the circumstances with their once-star receiver have only deteriorated and, yet, they are still plausible contenders to represent the NFC at the Big Game in their own backyard this February. Credit head coach Kyle Shanahan for navigating the Niners through the turbulence \u2014 and the football gods for sparing Christian McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

3. SAN JOSE SHARKS<\/p>\n

Trending:<\/strong> Up<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> At 19 years old, Macklin Celebrini has already established himself among the NHL\u2019s upper echelon. The Sharks, with the help of an exciting, young core around him, have taken the good vibes Celebrini\u2019s arrival brought last season and turned them into results on the ice. With lots of room still to grow, they are firmly in the race for their first playoff appearance since 2019.<\/p>\n

4. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS<\/p>\n

Trending:<\/strong> Down<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> Stephen Curry, at age 37, is playing as well as he ever has and the cost to go see him in person just once rivals that of any new tech gadget under your tree. So you could say things are still sublime in Warriorsland. Even the most casual observers can see that\u2019s not the case. The splash acquisition of Jimmy Butler last spring looked like it could solve all the Warriors\u2019 problems. Their wear and tear caught up to them in the postseason and they haven\u2019t recovered since. The Jonathan Kuminga saga that has weighed down their season may be resolved once and for all when he is eligible to be traded Jan. 15. But where will that leave the Warriors? With the window closing rapidly on a fifth championship in the Curry era, if it isn\u2019t already shut.<\/p>\n

5. SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS<\/p>\n

Trending:<\/strong> Neutral<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> What other direction to describe a club that has finished at or around .500 for the past four seasons? The Giants shook things up and hired their beloved former catcher, Buster Posey, to lead their baseball operations \u2014 and still finished 81-81, despite Posey swinging the season\u2019s splashiest deal by acquiring Rafael Devers. Time will tell if Posey\u2019s even more unconventional hire for the manager\u2019s seat \u2014 Tony Vitello, plucked from the college ranks \u2014 will be what takes the club from the annals of mediocrity. Devers is part of a core of position players that should make up the middle of the Giants\u2019 lineup for years to come, but all reports indicate that Vitello will be their biggest addition this winter.<\/p>\n

6. CAL AND STANFORD FOOTBALL<\/p>\n

Trending:<\/strong> Up<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> Welcome to the club, college football. With the amount of money pouring into the sport, consider these teams amateur in name only. Both our local institutions appeared to finally get the message, too, this year. The big-time hires of Andrew Luck and Ron Rivera to lead their respective alma maters signaled their intent to get serious about competing in the new era of college football.<\/p>\n

7. BAY FC<\/p>\n

Trending:<\/strong> Up?<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> Consider Bay FC a cautionary tale for the other expansion franchise at the top of these rankings. A surprise playoff appearance in its inaugural season in 2024, the NWSL club\u2019s second season was marred by an investigation into its head coach, who resigned midway through the year as the team stumbled to a second-to-last place finish. However, construction is underway on the team\u2019s new Treasure Island training facility, and almost entirely new leadership is in place for its third season, led by its new coach, British import Emma Coates.<\/p>\n

8. SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES<\/p>\n

Trending:<\/strong> Down<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong> There are still some vestiges of the A\u2019s former life at the Coliseum, such as the plush office chair in the old broadcast booth that still has Dallas Braden\u2019s name taped on the back, and unfortunately, the Bay Area hasn\u2019t entirely rid itself of the owner who upped and ran to Sacramento, either. As long as John Fisher owns the Earthquakes, it will be difficult to unseat our local MLS club from last place on this list. The Quakes brought in a name-brand manager in Bruce Arena, the former USMNT coach, and made some upgrades to their facilities, but still fell short of the MLS Cup playoffs. Arena was not so subtle when assessing what is holding the franchise back: \u201cImprove the roster, (but) we\u2019re not going to have the spend that a lot of other teams have in the league.\u201d The heir to the Gap family fortune is reportedly seeking to get out of the soccer business. Maybe 2026 will be the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, around this time, this paper of record made a bold declaration: The San Jose Sharks, of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":477692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1339,71948,1369,2473,3140,1362,1370,1266,1260,1232,293,20909,9005,1275,21601,1328,221,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-477691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bay-fc","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-golden-state-valkyries","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-inside-sports","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-pm-report","20":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","21":"tag-san-francisco-giants","22":"tag-san-jose-earthquakes","23":"tag-san-jose-sharks","24":"tag-soccer","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115803064299042207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}