Phoenix Mercury to host 2024 WNBA All-Star Game
Format still to be determined because of 2024 Paris Olympics
LAS VEGAS — The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game will stay out West when Phoenix hosts the annual event next summer, commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Saturday.
It will be the third time the Phoenix Mercury host the game, joining the second-ever All-Star Game in 2000 as well as the 2014 event. The news came during Engelbert’s address ahead of the 2023 game being held at Michelob Ultra Arena, which was announced in January. It is the earliest the league has announced an All-Star venue in her tenure, which began in the middle of 2019.
The Mercury announced the Skills Challenge and 3-Point Shootout will be July 19 with the All-Star Game on July 20.
“We did kind of a three-year look at kind of hosting All-Star because we kind of want to get ahead of it a lot more than at least [while] I’ve been here we did,” Engelbert told Yahoo Sports via phone on Thursday. “Three-time WNBA champion, they had hosted the Commissioner’s Cup when we did it at a neutral site that first year. Great people to work with. They know how to do it, they have great attendance. They’re one of the original teams from way back, so yeah, we’re really excited to be working with them.”
Engelbert said the league has been working with Phoenix since last fall and began finalizing it at the beginning of the calendar year. Mat Ishbia, the new team owner of the Mercury and NBA’s Suns, announced in late May the franchise had placed a formal bid on the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game.
“Phoenix is one of the great basketball cities in the world and the perfect place to bring together the players and fans to celebrate the sport,” Ishbia said in a statement in May. “The Phoenix Suns and Mercury want to continue finding new and important ways to partner with the city to bring real impact to our community.”
The Phoenix City Council later unanimously approved the resolution to host the game and an NBA All-Star Game in either 2025 or 2026. The franchise, city, mayor’s office, governor’s office, Phoenix Convention Center and other local groups wanted to present a united front on their bids.
“We have become known as ‘Championship Valley’ because we have the know-how and ability to execute the best major marquee sporting and mega events,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego told KJZZ.
An announcement a year in advance gives fans more time to plan trips and vacations, particularly during a time of increased travel around the country. It also gives more of a heads up to sponsors and businesses, which have been investing more in women’s sports.
The site of this year's event, Michelob Ultra Arena, which has a 12,000-seat capacity, sold out months ago and players have had problems finding tickets last minute. Footprint Center seats more than 17,000.
The 2022 All-Star Game in Chicago featured the first WNBA Live event, a multi-day fan festival with player meet-and-greets, interactive booths, live panels, fan skills challenges and viewing parties. The festival expanded from its 15,000-square-foot area outside of Wintrust Arena in Chicago to the 75,000-square-foot experience at Mandalay Bay in Vegas that was similar to the event held at the women’s Final Four every year.
“Our corporate partners kind of want to know where we are [and] know how they’ll start thinking about activating at All-Star,” Engelbert said. “And then we’ll get into this kind of habit of doing next year’s [announcement] at the All-Star Game.”
Sponsors in Vegas included American Express, Mielle, STARRY and Kia. Fans could get their nails done at the nail bar, hit up the Playa Society pop-up for merch, take photos with the Nike flower wall and hang out at the Sports Bra pop-up, an all-woman sports bar based in Portland, Oregon. There was also a center court again for activations and kids had plenty of games to compete. Engelbert said the league plans to “continue to blow that out” for the event in Phoenix and is happy to see the brands and agencies hosting functions.
“It’s feeling a little more like NBA All-Star weekend, although it’s a lot warmer,” Engelbert said.
The 2024 season is during an Olympic year, which historically meant the league didn’t hold the annual midseason event as top players were competing for Team USA. When the Tokyo Olympics were held in the summer of 2021, the league held an All-Star Game as Team USA, which were all automatic All-Stars, against the WNBA All-Stars who were not on the national team. It was also the league’s 25th anniversary year.
“I always reflected on Sue Bird and how long she played in the league,” Engelbert said. “She could have been a 20-time All-Star, but there were times we didn’t have it, so we definitely wanted that next year and not skip it like we have in the past. But we also put [in] 40 games now. We have a challenging footprint and all that.”
Engelbert said “we’ll definitely look at that” format with USA Basketball again as an option and more details on the set-up of the game will come later. The Olympics will be held in Paris from July 27 through Aug. 11, 2024.
