WNBA Phoenix Mercury

New Mercury investors make history

Published on February 2, 2004 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Phoenix Mercury News Release


PHOENIX, February 2 – The agreement allowing Phoenix-area business and community leaders Anne Mariucci and Kathy Munro to purchase 25% of the WNBA Phoenix Mercury marks a historic step for the seven-year-old league. Mariucci and Munro are the first outside investors to become partners with an NBA team in ownership of a WNBA team, and the first individual women to hold an ownership interest in a WNBA team. The sale is subject to league approval.

When created in 1997, the WNBA was a "single-entity" league, meaning the league owned every WNBA team and NBA teams with WNBA counterparts ran the teams under operating agreements.

In October of 2002, the structure was changed to a traditional sports model, with NBA teams taking over ownership of their WNBA teams. The change also opened the door for outside ownership of WNBA teams.

In January of 2003, the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut purchased a WNBA expansion team, marking the first time an entity outside of an NBA team acquired a WNBA team.

The WNBA begins its eighth season of competition on May 20. ABC will televise a rematch of last year's WNBA Finals on May 29, as the Los Angeles Sparks travel to Detroit to take on the Shock at 4 p.m. Game 3 of the 2003 WNBA Finals between the Shock and Sparks drew a WNBA-record 22,076 fans to the Palace of Auburn Hills as Detroit laid claim to its first WNBA championship. In 2003, more than 2 million fans attended WNBA games marking the fourth consecutive season that milestone was reached.

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