Phoenix Mercury to host 2024 WNBA All-Star Game
Phoenix will once again become the center of the women’s basketball universe next summer.
The Phoenix Mercury have been awarded the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game, a decade after it last hosted the event in 2014. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert made the announcement Saturday in Las Vegas ahead of the 2023 All-Star Game.
It will be the third time that Phoenix will host the event, following 2000 and 2014.
“The WNBA is excited to bring AT&T WNBA All-Star back to Phoenix for the third time in our nearly three-decade history,” Engelbert said. “Having an inaugural WNBA franchise in the Mercury host this two-day celebration is perfect as the basketball world focuses its eyes on the WNBA and today’s greatest stars.”
The Mercury and Suns placed formal bids to the NBA and WNBA for future All-Star games back in late May with hopes of making Phoenix a destination city for basketball fans. Over the past four years, Las Vegas has been a popular spot for the event and has hosted three of the last four WNBA All-Star games.
Suns and Mercury majority owner Mat Ishbia worked closely with Suns/Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein and Mercury president Vince Kozar, among others, to get the city’s approval and place a formal bid to the league.
“It was a great collaboration effort between the community and a lot of people were helping us out,” Ishbia said. “There were other teams and cities that really wanted the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game and for us to come out there and be the obvious choice for the WNBA was a big deal.”
Ishbia is in Las Vegas to observe how Las Vegas is doing the two-day event that included a skills challenge on Friday, the day before the actual game.
“We’re going to put our own Phoenix spin on it to make it even better and make it a great experience for the whole league,” Ishbia said. “We’re going to take all those great things and share ideas and continue to try and expose Phoenix in a positive way for the women’s basketball community and really for the whole basketball community.”
The event itself has grown even more since the last time it was held in Phoenix. This year’s game will air on ABC in prime time for the first time in the event’s 24-year history.
Phoenix will have its chance to stamp itself as a basketball town with the area scheduled to host the 2024 NCAA Men’s Final Four at State Farm Stadium, and the 2026 NCAA Women’s Final Four at Footprint Center.
The Suns are still hoping to host their first NBA All-Star game since 2009.
"The biggest part is that it’s a win for the community and the amount of people who are going to come to this All-Star game and see our town,” Ishbia said. “It’s going to help all of us and it’s going to help all of us. I’m excited for the community impact and it’s going to make a big impact for the Mercury and for the Suns.”
The most recent pro sports all-star game in the Valley was the 2015 NFL Pro Bowl, which took place in Glendale one week before Super Bowl XLIX. The MLB All-Star Game has been played in Phoenix once, in 2011.
The Suns have hosted the NBA All-Star Game three times: in 1975 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 1995 at the then-America West Arena, and 2009.
As for the NHL All-Star Game, it was awarded to the Coyotes for the 2005-06 season but the event was canceled because a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, settled after the entire 2004-05 season was lost to a lockout, stipulated the NHL All-Star Game would not be played in Winter Olympic years. The Coyotes were given the 2011 game as a replacement, but amid concern over the franchise's stability at the time, the game was subsequently moved to Raleigh, N.C.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix to host 2024 WNBA All-Star Game
