While we are some months away from this year’s All-Star weekend in Phoenix, it is still one of the marquee events year in and year out on the WNBA schedule.
It was a bit of a surprise at last year’s All-Star weekend press conference in Las Vegas when commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that there would indeed be an All-Star weekend this year. After all, 2024 is also an Olympic year and All-Star weekends typically have not occurred during Olympic years.
But 2024 – as 2021 was in Las Vegas – will be an exception to the rule. And what is a marquee event without a logo to go without.
The WNBA unveiled the 2024 All-Star logo. Of course, these logos are tie ins to the culture and vibe of the city and state that they will emanate from.
As we wrote about when the 2023 All-Star logo was unveiled, WNBA All-Star logos have taken a step in the right direction since the Chicago logo for the 2022 All-Star festivities.
Chicago’s – as expected – leaned heavily on its signature symbol – the six-sided star – long with a silhouette of the Willis Tower at the bottom.
*Chicago Beyond The W readers: “Whatchu talkin’ bout, Willis? It’s always gonna be the Sears Tower to us here in the Chi! You da feds or something?!*
The 2023 logo was pure Vegas. From the playing cards and dice to the nod to the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign, it was as Vegas as the Aces themselves. The only thing that was missing was a nod to The Vegas Sphere.
And – maybe the big WNBA ball at the top of the 2023 logo was just that. Sidenote…if only the Vegas Sphere wasn’t under the MSG umbrella…
Anyway, one can look at the WNBA All-Star 2024 logo and see it is pure Phoenix and Arizona. The three mountain peaks signify the three times that Phoenix has had the privilege of hosting All-Star. The three triangles below the “All-Star” wording are also a nod to the three times that All-Star has been hosted by the Phoenix Mercury.
Per the W, it also includes nods to indigenous Native American tribes in Arizona – including the Navajo Nation – in addition to a nod to Arizona’s state flag.
Also – notice the triangles adorning the outside of the logo? Yeah – a clear nod to a sun – a homage to the “Valley of the Sun” nickname Arizona holds so dear.
In fact, one can even look at the WNBA’s All-Star 2024 Phoenix logo as an improvement over the NBA’s All-Star 2009 insignia for its weekend in Phoenix. Yes – there was a sun, cactus and mountain peak in that logo – but the W’s, to its credit, has a lot more character than that of the NBA’s.
And it is a massive improvement over the two previous All-Star logos for when the W held its mid-season festivities in Phoenix. The 2000 logo simply used the Mercury typeface while the 2014 rendition simply used that which the WNBA used at the time.
We wrote about this last year when the Vegas logo was unveiled – and we are doing so again. It is amazing to us that for all of the talk the WNBA gets for being a “low-budget” league that one would not know it if All-Star logos were a barometer.
The WNBA’s All-Star logos for Chicago 2022, Las Vegas 2023 and now Phoenix 2024 are filled with creativity and charisma. The NBA’s All-Star logos lately have been following the same boring and bland template.
For all of the talk of the Super Bowl being the biggest sporting event in America, the NFL has also stripped it of all the character and charisma that used to be part of its brand. It has seen improvement in recent years by including nods to the city hosting said Big Game in its roman numerals, but it is nowhere near what it used to be.
The question that many WNBA fans likely would want to know is if it will bring back the East vs. West format ala what the NBA is doing. More than likely given the proximity to the Olympics, it will likely feature a tie in with USA Basketball ala the 2021 rendition.
That is yet to be seen. But we do know this – whoever is designing these WNBA All-Star logos has a bright future ahead of them. Is it possible they can design logos for NBA All-Star and the Super Bowl as well?
It appears creativity and pizazz in big event logos is a penalty flag in the NFL and a personal foul in the NBA nowadays.
