PHOENIX – The three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury and regional broadcast partner, Bally Sports Arizona, today announced a team-record 27-game broadcast slate on the club’s exclusive local television home. The first broadcast of the season comes this Friday, May 6, for Fry’s Food Stores Opening Night against the Las Vegas Aces at 7 p.m. on Bally Sports Arizona Extra.
Between the local broadcasts, carried on both Bally Sports Arizona and Bally Sports Arizona Extra, and nine nationally televised games on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and CBS, all 36 Mercury regular season games will be broadcast. The 27 regular season games on Bally Sports Arizona and Bally Sports Arizona Extra count as the most Mercury games ever carried on the team’s exclusive local partner.
Mercury President Vince Kozar: “We head into our 26th season with the momentum around the WNBA and the Mercury at an all-time high. It can be seen in our ticket sales, partnership growth, TV ratings, merchandise sales, and social engagement, and none of it happens without commitment from partners on this journey like Bally Sports Arizona. We are excited to offer our fans 27 local broadcasts, home and away, which we know will deepen their affinity for our team and introduce us to new fans who will buoy our continued growth. This is a great day for the Mercury.”
Nine games in total will be featured on Bally Sports Arizona (May 11 vs. Seattle, May 25 at Los Angeles, June 5 vs. Los Angeles, June 12 vs. Washington, June 23 vs. Minnesota, June 27 vs. Indiana, June 29 vs. Indiana, July 14 vs. Washington and July 28 vs. Los Angeles), and the other 18 games will air on Bally Sports Arizona Extra. All Mercury games are also streamed on the Bally Sports app (visit BallySports.com for more information).
A veteran of local and national WNBA broadcasts, Olympic women’s basketball, and Phoenix Suns local games, Hall-of-Famer Ann Meyers Drysdale returns for her ninth year as analyst on Mercury broadcasts. She will be joined by first-year Mercury play-by-play announcer Cindy Brunson, and together they will be Phoenix’s first all-female broadcast duo in team history. Brunson most recently served as the primary play-by-play voice of Athletes Unlimited, becoming the first woman of color to serve as the primary voice for a professional sports league. Prior to joining AU, Brunson covered Men’s and Women’s Basketball and College Football for the Pac 12 Networks, served as the Arizona Diamondbacks postgame and dugout reporter for Bally Sports Arizona, and was a studio host for ESPN’s SportsCenter for 13 years.
Led by the 2021 Olympic gold-medal winning trio of Diana Taurasi, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Tina Charles, and coming off the club’s fifth WNBA Finals appearance in franchise history, the three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury return to Footprint Center this summer, tipping off the season with Fry’s Food Stores Opening Night on Friday, May 6, against the Las Vegas Aces.
