Valley mayors tell your boss to let you go watch the Mercury

Clocking out early to watch the Phoenix Mercury take on the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals? These Valley mayors have your back. 

At the newly minted Mortgage Matchup Center (nee PHX Arena) on Wednesday evening, the overachieving Mercury will be taking on the Aces in Game Three of the league’s championship. Due to “that pesky East Coast bias,” as Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego put it, the game is starting at 5 p.m., an hour when many fans are still at work. Maybe you’re drinking there, maybe you’re not, but you’re probably not at the bar yet in any event, let alone seated for tipoff.

But three Valley mayors are looking to help out you, the fan, so that you can make sure that home arena is a proper zoo.

Gallego, Mesa Mayor Mark Freeman and Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke wrote cheeky permission slips to area employers to give Valley fans the opportunity to leave work early, put on their purple and orange, and help the team notch their first win in the best-of-seven series.

In her letter, Gallego asked Phoenix employers to “let your teams head out early on Game Day so we can pack the arena and give our Mighty Mercury the homecourt advantage they deserve.”

If the Mercury are to have a shot at capturing their first title since 2014, this is, in effect, a must-win game. Led by forward Alyssa Thomas — who this year set a single-season league record for triple-doubles — the Mercury have been a menace so far in the playoffs. They beat the reigning champion New York Liberty in the first round. Then in the semifinals they posted two ridiculous comebacks, including overcoming a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit in the decisive game, to squeak past the favored Minnesota Lynx.

So far in this series, the Aces won an ugly squeaker in Las Vegas in Game 1, then cruised past the Mercury in Game 2. But as the old adage goes, no playoff series truly starts until someone loses a home game. Tonight, as Hartke put it, “let’s rally behind Phoenix Mercury and show our support.”

Will Hartke’s get-out-of-work-to-watch-hoops note work? There’s one way to find out.