What to know about the Sparks’ 2023 schedule

The Sparks’ Curt Miller period will open on Could 19 at Crypto.com Enviornment towards the Phoenix Mercury, the WNBA introduced Wednesday because it revealed its regular-season schedule.

Every workforce will play a league-record 40 regular-season video games in 2023, and the Sparks, who’ve missed the playoffs in consecutive years, will play seven groups, together with all 5 Western Convention opponents, 4 instances every. They are going to play the remaining 4 groups — Connecticut, Indiana, New York and Washington — 3 times every.

Miller, who was employed in October, will face the Connecticut Solar, his former workforce, for the primary time on June 18 at dwelling.

With consecutive shedding seasons and the lingering results of the pandemic, the Sparks are struggling to recapture the eye of its once-proud fan base. The workforce that led the league in attendance for 3 consecutive seasons earlier than the pandemic shut down arenas in 2020 averaged 5,653 followers per sport final 12 months, which ranked sixth within the 12-team league. The Sparks topped the WNBA with about 11,000 followers a sport in 2019.

As Miller rebuilds the workforce on the courtroom, the Sparks hope schedule tweaks can entice followers to attend. They are going to play a franchise-record 10 weekend dwelling video games and tip off on weekdays at 7 p.m. as a substitute of the standard 7:30. The modifications will “create extra accessibility for our Sparks fanbase,” workforce president Vanessa Shay mentioned in an announcement.

The Sparks play consecutive video games towards the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces on Could 25 and 27, first at Crypto.com Enviornment after which in Las Vegas. Former Sparks star Candace Parker makes her return to L.A. with the Chicago Sky on June 9 and Aug. 29.

After the Sparks performed what then-interim coach Fred Williams known as “one of many hardest schedules within the historical past of the WNBA,” the workforce gained’t have a visit longer than three video games in 2023. The Sparks performed 9 of their first 12 video games on the street final 12 months in a 36-game schedule that was compressed due to the FIBA Girls’s World Cup in September.

The Sparks’ most travel-intensive journey doesn’t come till the ultimate week of the season because the workforce performs at Connecticut on Sept. 5, at New York on Sept. 7 and at Seattle within the regular-season finale on Sept. 10.