{"id":183770,"date":"2025-10-02T00:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/183770\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T00:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:09:07","slug":"money-well-spent-ishbias-investment-into-wnbas-mercury-pays-off-fast-with-surprise-run-to-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/183770\/","title":{"rendered":"Money well spent: Ishbia\u2019s investment into WNBA\u2019s Mercury pays off fast with surprise run to Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Phoenix Mercury’s Sami Whitcomb, left, and DeWanna Bonner celebrate after winning Game 4 of a WNBA basketball playoff semifinals series against the Minnesota Lynx last Sunday.Samantha Chow\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a typical day for the Phoenix Mercury at their recently built, US$100-million downtown practice facility, with players, coaches and support staff making the final preparations for their surprise trip to the WNBA Finals.<\/p>\n

The 58,000-square-foot complex has everything a team needs to be successful \u2014 two full-size courts, a weight room and a team meeting room with theatre-style seating. It opened last year, around the same time the franchise hosted the league\u2019s All-Star game.<\/p>\n

This \u2014 owner Mat Ishbia says \u2014 is the future of the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want this to be a competitive advantage,\u201d Ishbia said. \u201cI want everyone else to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the WNBA enters an era of increased exposure and popularity, the Mercury are one of the league\u2019s crown jewels. The proud franchise has been to the Finals six times since its inception in 1997, winning championships in 2007, 2009 and 2014.<\/p>\n

Phoenix will get a chance to add a fourth title to its resume in the coming weeks: The Mercury face the Las Vegas Aces in the best-of-seven Finals starting with Game 1 on Friday in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Ishbia bought the NBA\u2019s Phoenix Suns and the Mercury for roughly US$4-billion, finalizing the deal in early 2023. Since then, he\u2019s poured money into both teams and his investment into the Mercury has paid off quickly.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old Ishbia sat courtside for the team\u2019s Game 3 win over the Minnesota Lynx in the semifinals, taking in the raucous atmosphere of nearly 16,000 fans at PHX Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis matters a lot to me and our organization,\u201d Ishbia said. \u201cWe care. And the franchise that cares the most usually wins the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mercury weren\u2019t supposed to be this good this quickly, after losing franchise legends Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner during the offseason. Taurasi retired after a stellar 20-year career while Griner left in free agency for the Atlanta Dream.<\/p>\n

But second-year coach Nate Tibbetts was able to rebuild the roster in a hurry, adding veterans like Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and Satou Sabally to join holdovers like Kahleah Copper and Natasha Mack.<\/p>\n

The Mercury finished with a 27-17 record to earn the No. 4 seed in the playoffs before knocking off the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty in the first round and the top-seeded Lynx in the second round.<\/p>\n

Copper said word is out around the WNBA that Phoenix is one of the best places to play in the league. She wasn\u2019t surprised when veteran players were so eager to come to the desert.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people, the access, the support staff,\u201d Copper said. \u201cWe have a sports scientist, we have nutritionists, the list goes on and on. Those things are so important. Having success, being healthy, knowing what your body needs \u2014 it\u2019s all for us to perform at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Tibbets: \u201c[Ishbia] gives us everything we need. He\u2019s involved, but he\u2019s not over the top. And there are also expectations, which is good. I\u2019m happy for him because he made a commitment and took a chance on me and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re showing results, and we\u2019re not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s practice facility has only become more important as WNBA players adjust to the grind of a longer season. This year\u2019s 44-game schedule was the longest in league history and the upcoming Finals will be first time the league has had a series that could potentially last seven games.<\/p>\n

For a league that\u2019s had its share of growing pains in recent months \u2014 Napheesa Collier\u2019s salvo against WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is the latest example \u2014 the Mercury are a positive example of what the league could look like over the coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have good people around, great things can happen,\u201d Ishbia said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019ll win the title this year. We may win it this year, next year or in eight years, but there\u2019s always going to be consistent investment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Phoenix Mercury’s Sami Whitcomb, left, and DeWanna Bonner celebrate after winning Game 4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,630,883,913],"class_list":["post-183770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-wnba","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}