PHOENIX — Call them the Phoenix Mercury (Nate's Version).
The Valley's WNBA franchise released its schedule for the 2024 season, the first in the era of new head coach Nate Tibbetts, on Monday using some Taylor Swift-themed social media posts.
The Mercury will play 40 regular-season games in a season that will feature a new format for the in-season tournament (called the Commissioner's Cup) and a month-long break for the WNBA All-Star Game and the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The Mercury will tip off their season on May 14 on the road against the two-time reigning WNBA champions, the Las Vegas Aces.
The Mercury will play their first home game of the season on May 18 against the Atlanta Dream.
The rest of May will see the Mercury play another game in Vegas against the Aces on May 21, then have back-to-back home games against the Washington Mystics (May 23) and Dallas Wings (May 25). The Mercury will end the month with three road games against the Connecticut Sun (May 28), New York Liberty (May 29) and Minnesota Lynx (May 31).
The Commissioner's Cup will now be played during the first two weeks of June. The Mercury will play three home games and two road games during that stretch.
Phoenix will open Commissioner's Cup play on June 2 at home against the Los Angeles Sparks, then travel to Seattle to play the Storm on June 4. That will be followed by a home game against the Lynx (June 7) and a road game against the Wings (June 9). The Mercury will wrap up Commissioner's Cup play at home against the Aces on June 13.
The team with the best Commissioner's Cup record in both the Eastern and Western Conferences will meet in the championship game on June 25. That game will be played at the home of the team with the best record in Commissioner's Cup play.
After the two weeks of Commissioner's Cup games, the Mercury will host the Storm (June 15) and Liberty (June 18) before going on the road to play the Lynx (June 22). Phoenix will end June with home games against the Sparks (June 28) and Indiana Fever (June 30).
The Mercury will play seven games in July before the month-long break for the All-Star Game and Olympics.
On July 1, the Mercury will host the Sun. Then they will play two road games against the Wings (July 3) and Sparks (July 7) before coming back home to play the Wings on July 10. Phoenix won't play another home game until August 18 as they wrap up the first half of the season with road games against the Fever (July 12), Sun (July 14) and Mystics (July 16).
The WNBA All-Star break will be held from July 18-22.
The 2024 WNBA All-Star Weekend will be held July 19-20 at the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix. The All-Star Skills Challenge and Three-Point Shootout be held on July 19 and the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game will be played on July 20. This will be the first time the WNBA's All-Star Game will be played in the Valley since 2014.
The All-Star break will be immediately followed by the WNBA's Olympic break, which will be from July 26 to August 11.
The regular season will resume with back-to-back road games for the Mercury against the Chicago Sky (August 15) and Indiana Fever (August 16). The Mercury will then return home on August 18 to play the Sky before a trip to Atlanta to play two games against the Dream on August 21 and 23. The Mercury will finish August with home games against the New York Liberty (August 26) and the Minnesota Lynx (August 28).
The Mercury's longest homestand of the season will continue in September with games against the Aces (September 1), Dream (September 3) and Mystics (September 5).
That will be followed by a trip to the Pacific Northwest to play the Seattle Storm on September 7 and a home game against the Connecticut Sun on September 13.
Phoenix's final road trip of the season will feature games against the Chicago Sky (September 15) and Los Angeles Sparks (September 17). The Mercury's final game of the regular season will be on September 19 at home against the Storm.
The Mercury play all of their home games at the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix.
Tickets for the home opener against the Atlanta Dream on May 18 are on sale now and can be purchased at phoenixmecury.com/tickets. Single-game tickets for all other home games will go on sale soon.
Arizona sports
The city of Phoenix is home to five major professional sports league teams; The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, NBA's Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks and NHL's Arizona Coyotes.
The Cardinals have made State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury. The Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers play at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. The Coyotes play at Mullett Arena on ASU's Tempe campus.
Phoenix also has a soccer team with the USL's Phoenix Rising FC, who play at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium in Phoenix.
The Valley hosts multiple major sporting events on a yearly basis, including college football's Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl; the PGA Tour’s highest-attended event, the WM Phoenix Open; NASCAR events each spring and fall, including Championship Weekend in November; and Cactus League Spring Training for 15 Major League Baseball franchises.
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