New York Liberty ticker-tape parade announced for Thursday
The city celebrated the United States women’s soccer team winning its fourth World Cup title in 2019 with a ticker-tape parade. Photo by spurekar – Demanding Equity on Wikimedia
New York City will host a ticker-tape parade this Thursday to celebrate the New York Liberty winning their first-ever WNBA championship. The team clinched the 2024 title in a nail-biter game 5 on Sunday night, defeating the Minnesota Lynx 62-67 in overtime. Mayor Eric Adams announced the parade will take place at 10 a.m. on October 24 along the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan.
“Congratulations, New York Liberty for winning your first WNBA title. You made us proud and we’re going to make you proud,” Adams said Monday in a video on X.
“We’re going to give you a ticker-tape parade, 10 a.m. on Thursday morning. And then after that, we’re going to have an amazing ceremony right here at City Hall to say thank you to our heroes.”
The mayor also announced plans to light up City Hall, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 1 Centre Street, Queens Borough Hall, and Staten Island Borough Hall in the team’s seafoam green on Monday.
The Liberty was founded in 1997 as one of the original franchises of the WNBA. The team played at Madison Square Garden, Prudential Center in Newark during MSG renovations, and at the Westchester County Center in White Plains for two years before moving to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2019. The first full-time season at Barclays was in 2021.
Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, minority owners of the Brooklyn Nets, bought the team in 2019 with the promise of investing in the team.
“When we bought this team four years ago, they were playing in the Westchester County Center to a crowd of 2,000,” Wu Tsai told Holly Rowe of ESPN after the game on Sunday. “The first thing we wanted to do was to bring the team to Barclays Center so they could have a bigger stage.”
“Then, we wanted to give them facilities and performance and nutrition and everything they deserve because they are elite professional athletes. And look what can happen when you have an intention and you put resources, care, and attention to it. This is what can happen when you invest in women!”
The Liberty’s win marks the first basketball championship for New York since the Knicks won in 1973. (The former New York Nets (now Brooklyn) of the defunct American Basketball Association won the title in 1976).
“This moment means everything — not only to the Liberty organization, but to our fans and all of New York City,” Keia Clarke, CEO of New York Liberty, said in a statement. “The Liberty have been chasing this dream since 1997 and after a strategic five-year turnaround, driven by ownership’s vision of rebuilding and regrowing this historic team, we are proud to get back to first and win this championship for New York.”
“We would not be here without our fans whose passion has helped energize this team all season long. We take great pride in what we’ve built with our fans — something special that extends far beyond the basketball court — and this moment is just as much for them as it is for us.”
New York City has hosted over 200 ticker-tape parades, named after the use of shredded paper from ticker-tape machines, starting in 1886 for the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. Most recently, the city honored Covid-19 first responders with a parade in 2021. The parade route stretches from Broadway to City Hall, known as the Canyon of Heroes.
Following the parade on Thursday, a ceremony will be held at City Hall to honor the team. The parade is free and open to the public but tickets are required for the post-parade ceremony at City Hall; they will be distributed via a lottery in the coming days, according to the Liberty.
On Thursday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., the celebration continues with a free ticketed event at the Barclays Center. Sign up to be notified about both events here.
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