Phoenix to Host 2024 WNBA All-Star Game, Kathy Englebert Announces

The 2024 WNBA All-Star game will be hosted at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, according to an announcement from league commissioner Cathy Engelbert ahead of Saturday’s 2023 iteration in Las Vegas.

Home of the Mercury, Phoenix has previously hosted the event twice, in 2000 and 2014.

“With Phoenix being one of our original franchises, now under new ownership, they are very excited,” Engelbert told ESPN’s M.A. Voepel. “The city is also hosting a women’s Final Four coming up [2026]and I think they want to be a center of basketball. So the Mercury were very interested in having All-Star.”

The Mercury are currently in their first season under new ownership with Mat Ishbia taking over the franchise as well as the Phoenix Suns last December. He’s been extremely interested in helping bring the All-Star game back to the Valley.

As part of the efforts to make the event as good as it can be, he and other Phoenix officials have been monitoring how things have gone in Vegas this week.

“We’re all here in Las Vegas seeing how [owner] Mark Davis and the Las Vegas Aces are putting on the All-Star Game and saying, ‘What can we take from here to put into our event?'” Ishbia told Voepel. “And make it even better, not only for the people that show up for the game, but for the community. We’re looking at all aspects of it to try to make this a great show.

“We’re real big believers that Phoenix is a basketball destination, not only for women’s and men’s players but for fans. It’s one of the best basketball hotspots in the country. And we’re eager to showcase that.”

With it being a part of the Olympic cycle, 2024 will be a particularly special event as the league’s stars may potentially take on Team USA as they did back in 2021 ahead of the Tokyo games.

The All-Stars actually won that game 93-85 in a fun and entertaining matchup. The league is in talks with USA Basketball to make it happen again, per Engelbert.

“In an Olympic year, I think it is nice to give the national team another playing opportunity against some of the other best players in the world,” Ishbia said. “Being an Olympic year elevates it even further. We’re really excited about that opportunity, and thrilled that the commissioner chose us.”