Takeaways from the 2022 Indiana Fever schedule

Each team will play 36 games this season, up from 32 last year. In addition, the league has taken steps to reduce travel by adding in more “series,” in which two teams will play consecutive games in the same city.

Even with new wrinkles impacting each team, the Indiana Fever may once again have the most unique schedule in the league. Last season, they had a lengthy West Coast trip early in the campaign that was difficult and taxing. They played in two different home stadiums and didn’t see the Minnesota Lynx until their 28th game. Their slate of games was just weird.

“Our first half of the season, we were hitting all the harder teams and we had to stay on the West Coast for a long time,” Fever guard Aaliyah Wilson said of the 2021 season.

This season, the Fever have a unique schedule again, but for different reasons. First and foremost, they open the season on May 6 against the Washington Mystics in the nation’s capital. The Fever’s final two games of the season are also against, you guessed it, the Mystics. Indiana also plays Las Vegas three times in its final seven games.

What makes the Fever’s schedule unique, beyond the order of opponents, is where the red and blue will host their opponents. Indiana will play home games in three different stadiums this season because its usual home, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, is undergoing renovations for the second consecutive summer. That will reposition the Fever this season, and they will change where they call home mid-season.

Twice.

The Fever will play their first five home games in the recently renamed Gainbridge Fieldhouse. That building is one that the Fever have called home for a while now, and it’s where their newly renovated locker room and practice facility are located. But the Fieldhouse enters a new phase of renovations next summer, so the team from the Circle City will play games elsewhere starting in late May.

The Fever’s next nine home games will be played in Indiana Farmers Coliseum, which is roughly a 15-minute drive from the team’s downtown facilities. Indiana played many of its home games in this building last season.

Indiana’s final four home games will be played in Hinkle Fieldhouse, the home of the Butler Bulldogs. Hinkle is also just 15 minutes away from downtown Indianapolis and is a classic venue that is excellent for basketball viewing. The Fever were set to play games there during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, but the COVID-19 pandemic altered the planning of both seasons. Now, starting in late July 2022, they finally will get to play in Butler’s historic arena.

“Three stadiums. I know we will get a taste of Butler, Farmer and Gainbridge. I’m excited,” Wilson said.

Some other notes and quirks on the Indiana Fever schedule:

• The Fever have a tough back-to-back on May 31 and June 1, as they take on the Mystics in Indianapolis on a Tuesday before flying to New York and battling with the Liberty the following night. However, the Fever will host three different opponents who have to travel to Indianapolis to play their second game in two nights: the Phoenix Mercury in June and the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky in July.
• Speaking of Chicago, Indiana will take on the defending champions for the first time this season on May 24.
• From June 15 through July 17, the Fever play 11 games—three against the Mercury, three against the Seattle Storm, two against defending champion Chicago, one against 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones and the Connecticut Sun, one against 2021 Defensive Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles and the Lynx, and one in Dallas against the Wings. That stretch will be difficult for the young and growing Fever.
• Indiana doesn’t have a homestand or a road trip longer than four games this season.
• The WNBA season opens on May 6, and the very first game fans will see will be the Fever versus the Mystics. This is the second season in a row in which the Fever play in the first scheduled game of the season.