NEW YORK \u2014 If someone starts making money somewhere, this city often isn\u2019t far behind trying to claim its own piece.<\/p>\n
So when Philadelphia\u2019s hosting of Unrivaled\u2019s women\u2019s basketball league banked $2 million in revenue<\/a>, turning profits for the league and Comcast, it wasn\u2019t surprising that the Big Apple wanted in.<\/p>\n Nor was it surprising that Unrivaled wanted it too. The three-on-three circuit and Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center had already talked about next season, but a deal quickly came together to move this season\u2019s playoff semifinals here. It was a natural fit for a venue renowned for drawing some of the WNBA\u2019s biggest and loudest crowds to New York Liberty games.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen this opportunity came up, they jumped right on it,\u201d Paige Bueckers of Breeze BC and the Dallas Wings said. \u201cI played here a couple times before, and the atmosphere in the arena is just electric. [Philadelphia] was everything that we could have dreamed that it would be, and so it\u2019s obviously an opportunity that we want to take advantage of again.\u201d <\/p>\n How would this scene compare to Xfinity Mobile Arena\u2019s record crowd of 21,490, as the city unleashed itself from a 28-year-wait to see professional women\u2019s basketball in person?<\/p>\n Natasha Cloud played diplomat, being both a Broomall<\/a> native and Liberty fan favorite.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Unrivaled\u2019s Philadelphia spectacle delivered not just a big crowd, but a profitable one<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis is just a testament to the demand [for] women\u2019s basketball right now,\u201d the Phantom BC guard said. \u201cThis [night] is going to sell out tonight again, just like Philly did. And this is why we\u2019re going to continue to stand on our worth and our value, because when you give the product, the demand is there.\u201d<\/p>\n One could guess that New York would deliver more cash. Fans here will pay up for a big show, and the Barclays Center recently added big swaths of new luxury seating.<\/p>\n Before Monday\u2019s games, Unrivaled CEO Alex Bazzell met with the media and said \u201cthis is already a profitable trip,\u201d including over $1 million in ticket revenue alone.<\/p>\n Philadelphia keeps a record<\/p>\n He also was unabashed in drawing a straight line from Unrivaled\u2019s success in Philadelphia to going on the road again a few weeks later. This night came together in just three weeks, from landing the building to selling it out.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest with you, it was somewhat of an internal split room on should we pull the trigger on this, should we not,\u201d he said. \u201cComing off Philly and having that great success was one thing, but it was also we had time to strategize and plan, [and] had a great partner like Xfinity come in behind it and help amplify it [as a sponsor].\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Kahleah Copper shares North Philly with Unrivaled teammates: \u2018I really made it because of y\u2019all\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n In the end, the executives trusted their gut, and were rewarded.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was all organic,\u201d Bazzell said. \u201cWe can look at all the data that you want, but ultimately the decision came down to: we didn\u2019t play it safe to build this league, so we don\u2019t start playing it safe now. That\u2019s not in our DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n On one count, Brooklyn was always going to land far short of Philadelphia. The Barclays Center is a much smaller venue than Xfinity Mobile Arena, and its full house Monday was 18,261.<\/p>\n So Philadelphia gets something to claim while it waits for its own WNBA team in 2030<\/a>, and it\u2019s a mark that could stand for a while. Just three pro basketball arenas nationwide have larger capacities: Detroit, Washington, and Chicago.<\/p>\n \u201cPhilly was amazing, from everything that I saw and from talking to everybody that came back,\u201d said Brittney Griner, a star of Vinyl BC and the Atlanta Dream, after watching those games from afar. \u201cIt looked amazing on TV \u2014 they packed out that stadium. It shows how much women\u2019s basketball is growing and there\u2019s a love and there\u2019s a need and people want to come and watch.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Unrivaled stars experience Philly\u2019s passion for basketball at record-breaking doubleheader: \u2018We felt that tonight\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Breanna Stewart, one of Unrivaled\u2019s co-founders, said \u201cthe conversation from the players was just a tremendous amount of appreciation\u201d for the turnout.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I think is probably the coolest about Philly is, we went to a non-WNBA city,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople came, and they cared, and whether they had to travel in [or] all those types of things, it showed how big of a deal it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking at a return<\/p>\n Of course, the superstar of Mist BC and the New York Liberty admitted her bias toward Brooklyn, as you\u2019d expect. And since this was a playoff game, she had to earn the right to play in it. <\/p>\n \u201cEver since I knew that this was possible \u2026 for it to come to fruition and full circle that fast is something that I couldn\u2019t wait to be a part of,\u201d she said. \u201cLike, my team needed to be here in the semis. I didn\u2019t want to come as a spectator, I wanted to be playing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Unrivaled brought the hoops, but Philly brought the energy. With WNBA on the way, \u2018this is just the beginning.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Stewart duly delivered, willing Mist to a 73-69 win with a fourth-quarter comeback that had the crowd roaring. She piled up 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists, dishing the last to Arike Ogunbowale for a game-sealing three-pointer on her birthday.<\/p>\n Bazzell confirmed there are plans to keep touring next season, and there\u2019s a lot of \u201cinbound interest\u201d from potential hosts. He didn\u2019t name specific cities, but he did say that preliminary talks with the Barclays Center had started with looking at next year instead of this one.<\/p>\n He also said that \u201cgoing to cities that really don\u2019t get to see these stars up close\u201d matters. And he threw the door wide open to a return to Philadelphia, though it might not happen next season<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to find our way back to Philly,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s next year, the following year, or the year after \u2014 we do want to hit new markets \u2026 There\u2019s obviously other NBA markets we still want to think about going to. So I would anticipate new venues, new cities next year when we do announce our [schedule].\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Natasha Cloud was thrilled that \u2018Young Tash\u2019 got a Philly hoops homecoming with Unrivaled: \u2018I carry this city everywhere I go\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n The last word goes to a player who was a star of both touring nights. Kelsey Plum led Phantom BC to a win in Philadelphia<\/a> and another here<\/a>, this time scoring 31 points in an 83-75 victory over Breeze BC. A longtime villain<\/a> in Brooklyn from past years with the Las Vegas Aces, this time she was roundly cheered.<\/p>\n \u201cBasketball cities, right? And I think they just love the game,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought everyone put on a show, and that\u2019s what you want for the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 If someone starts making money somewhere, this city often isn\u2019t far behind trying to claim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,228623,434],"class_list":["post-501611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-unrivaled-basketball-brooklyn-breanna-stewart-kelsey-plum","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}