Mercury fans showed up despite team being booted to college arena

Thursday night saw the Phoenix Mercury playing their first playoff game at Grand Canyon University after Footprint Arena booted them for a Maluma concert.

Despite the change in location, fans still turned out in support, with the Mercury drawing close to a sellout in their 83-82 defeat of the New York Liberty. The arena’s capacity sits at 7,000 fans, less than the just-shy of 10,000 fans that the Mercury drew for their final two regular season home games.

GCU Arena capacity is 7,000 ... #Mercury drew just under 10,000 for their final two regular season home games at Footprint Arena, not available tonight because of Maluma (Colombian singer) concert

— jeffmetcalfe (@jeffmetcalfe) September 23, 2021

The crowd appeared to be a major factor in the win, with Skylar Diggins-Smith thanking the fans for showing up even with the change in location.

Damn! Shoutout to the X-factor for holding us down tonight! 🙅🏽‍♀️
Onto the next 💜🧡

— Skylar Diggins-Smith (@SkyDigg4) September 24, 2021

GCU Women’s Basketball was also in attendance to support, giving the players the opportunity to experience what a WNBA game feels like.

Cheering on @PhoenixMercury for Round 1 of the @WNBA playoffs at our beautiful GCU Arena 👏#LopesUp pic.twitter.com/Qg9ekNcePU

— GCU Women's Basketball (@GCU_WBB) September 24, 2021

But some were also quick to point out the logo on the court, arguing that a WNBA Playoff game should be played on a court with a WNBA logo.

On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is it to change the logo on a court like this? Because a WNBA Playoff game shouldn’t be played on a court without a WNBA team logo. pic.twitter.com/M27FmbPiwf

— Chantel Jennings (@ChantelJennings) September 24, 2021

The Mercury travel to play the Seattle Storm on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.