PHOENIX — Mat Ishbia is right where he wants to be. The WNBA All-Star Game is Saturday night at the already sold-out Footprint Center. The Mercury’s new $100 million training facility opened Friday — three months ahead of schedule — just south of the downtown arena and features courts named for star Diana Taurasi.
Ishbia is also scheduled to play in the NBA All-Star Game in 2027. Not bad for 18 months as owner of the Suns and Mercury.
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“We’re trying to make Phoenix a destination,” Ishbia said in an interview Friday, standing near center court at the new practice facility. “We want to make it the best basketball city in America. I think it is. We’re going to continue to prove that.”
The debut of the game and facilities comes just three months after the opening of the adjacent state-of-the-art offices and The staging of the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four at State Farm Stadium in nearby Glendale, Arizona. The women’s Final Four is scheduled for April 3-5, 2025, at Footprint.
On Saturday night, the WNBA stars will take on the U.S. women’s Olympic team, which is preparing for the Paris Olympics, in a rare All-Star format. Ishbia will feature WNBA rookie sensations Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who will play for the stars. Her own stars — Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Kahleah Copper — will play for the U.S. Olympians in a game televised nationally on ABC.
It will be the second WNBA sellout of 17,071 in a matter of weeks. Clark was the Drawing card June 30. It always is when the Indiana Fever travels; earlier this month, Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena drew a crowd of 20,366.
The Fever defeated the Mercury 88-82 in their June matchup, and the crowd was the largest for a Mercury game since 1997 and the second-largest in club history. The Suns regularly sell out the stadium, with 121 straight sellouts, including playoffs, dating back to Dec. 19, 2021.
Ishbia is investing the money and is getting a financial return, even though he has yet to win a championship. He has basketball experience as a point guard at Michigan State, where he played on the team that won the NCAA men’s national championship in 2000.
“They’re really putting their best foot forward,” Clark said Friday of the festivities. “Obviously, Mat Ishbia is really investing in the women’s side of his ownership. For me, it’s really cool to see that. He really cares. He wants it to be great. His team really deserves it.”
For Ishbia, “it’s all part of the strategy,” he said.
Ishbia purchased a majority stake in the entire package from suspended manager Robert Sarver for $4 billion and has since made significant investments in the stadium, practice facilities, office space, players and staff for both franchises. Footprint Center is a partnership between Ishbia and the city of Phoenix, though the city owns the building and property.
The franchise purchases became official on February 7, 2022, as the NBA trade deadline approached. Ishbia immediately approved a major trade and obtained Kevin Durant from the Brooklyn Nets.
The Mercury were a sad stepchild of the Suns under Sarver, and Ishbia has now elevated the team’s WNBA facility to NBA standards. The 123,000-square-foot practice palace is on par with the Suns’ downtown facility built by Sarver as part of a major $230 million arena renovation in 2020. The city, which built the arena for the Suns in 1992 at a cost of $89 million in public funds, invested $130 million, with Sarver adding $100 million, $50 million of it for the practice facility.
The Suns and Mercury have a lease to play at the stadium through 2036.
Ishbia said he personally paid the $100 million in cash for the Mercury office without any help from the city and will continue to invest. He is worth $10.1 billion and is the chief executive of United Wholesale Mortgage of Michigan.
“I’m going to be here for a long time,” said Ishbia, who at 44 is not joking. “It’s an investment that I made and that we made as an organization for the Mercury. We’re going to continue to evolve. The investment in basketball and the community is not going to stop. Sometimes the investment pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. But we’re going to adapt and make it happen.”
Of course, the investment in the Mercury and the WNBA in general has impressed the players. Ishbia said she hopes what she’s doing in Phoenix will set the tone for the entire sport.
Taurasi, now 42 and nearing the end of her career, has seen it all during her 20 years in the league, all with the Mercury. She remembers a time when both the Suns and Mercury practiced in an underground facility deep in the recesses of the current arena, which she calls, not too fondly, “the dungeon.” She recalled, however, that “the dungeon” was state-of-the-art when the arena opened in 1992.
“I have really fond memories of practicing in that bunker,” Taurasi said Thursday. “But now it’s nice to have a smoothie after practice.”
Some things don’t age well, like the Suns’ current practice facility, which Ishbia said will be replaced at some point. The “dungeon” has been turned into a party room replete with rows on the floor to remind visitors of what once happened there.
Taurasi credits the WNBA with taking significant steps (traveling on charter flights from one city to another for the first time this year) since Taurasi burst onto the scene in 2004. Like Clark, she says Ishbia is an owner who genuinely cares about his people and the product.
“Mat has found a way to push things to the limit,” Taurasi said. “Not only has he built this facility in the time he’s built it and brought All-Stars here, but he’s also changed the perception of what this city and franchise is like. He’s made a difference. He pushes the limits, which is what you need from a WNBA owner if you want to compete.”
Ishbia said he is happy with that kind of praise. He wants to be known as an owner who does everything first class and so far he has achieved that.
“I feel great,” he said. “I bought the Suns and Mercury less than 18 months ago. We talked about putting them on a pedestal. We’re going to treat them very well. We’re going to invest in them. It’s easy to say and sometimes it’s harder to do. Seeing it come to fruition is not because of me. It’s because of my incredible (front office) team.”
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