Club announces 2022 schedule

It’s never too early to get excited for the 2022 WNBA season.

The league and Connecticut Sun announced the 2022 schedules Thursday, which will include a record-high 36 games for each team.

The Sun, the best team in the WNBA in the 2021 regular season before falling to eventual champion Chicago in the semifinals, will open their season at the New York Liberty on May 7, while their home opener will be a week later, on May 14 when they host the Los Angeles Sparks at Mohegan Sun Arena.

This year will mark the 20th anniversary of when the franchise relocated from Orlando to Uncasville. The anniversary will be celebrated during the team’s home opener.

The WNBA regular season is starting and ending earlier than usual in 2022 (ultimately running May 6-Aug. 14) to accommodate a new playoff format that features three rounds of series play and to ensure the season concludes before the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, which starts on Sept. 22. In the new playoff format, the first-round games will be a best-of-three series, while the semifinals and finals will remain best-of-five.

Still, the league will bring back the Commissioner’s Cup in-season tournament and championship game, which debuted last year when the Seattle Storm defeated the Sun to win the Cup. The 2022 Commissioner’s Cup championship game will be held July 26.

The WNBA All-star Game will be held on July 10, with pre-all Star activities kicking off July 9.

Some other highlights of the Sun’s schedule include:

Four meetings against the Sky, New York Liberty and Indiana Fever.

A prolonged West Coast trip starting with two games in Vegas and ending with one in Seattle May 31-June 5.

Four four-game homestands, one in June and one in July/august.

The Sun have several question marks entering free agency, which officially begins Feb. 1, including whether reigning league MVP Jonquel Jones, currently an unrestricted free agent, will return to Connecticut, where she’s played her entire career?