The arms race isn’t just happening in the NBA. In the WNBA too, the best teams are investing.
Mat Ishbia, the owner of the Phoenix Mercury (and the Phoenix Suns), announced that he was going to spend nearly 100 million dollars in the construction of a training center reserved for the women’s team!
The Arizona franchise will thus be only the third WNBA team to have its own training center, after the Las Vegas Aces and the Seattle Storm, the other clubs having to share their training grounds with university teams, NBA franchises and even amateur basketball players.
As Mat Ishbia is a man in a hurry, he assures that the training center will be ready for the 2024 season.
Free up space at the Footprint Center
“I don’t like things that take two years. We will do things correctly and quickly”, explained the billionaire. “It will be a special place for the Mercury. »
This new training center, located near the Footprint Center, will include two courts, ten baskets, a fitness center, hydrotherapy facilities, a cinema room, a large locker room and a space for families, as well as a kitchen with a dedicated chef.
However, one might wonder why the new owner is investing so much when the Mercury has moved to the Verizon 5G Performance Center, an ultra-modern training center that it shares with the Suns, in 2021…
This is because, already, the WNBA club shares the facilities with the NBA club, and this is therefore not ideal. But it is also that the new Mercury training center will also include the offices of the managers of the WNBA and NBA franchises. Enough to reclaim space at the Footprint Center, which currently houses them.
Enough to create new services (and boxes?) for fans during Mercury and Suns matches.
