Libertys fanbase began as niche but the Big Apple is theirs after championship triumph: Its not just basketball

It’s not just a team, it’s a lifestyle.The New York Liberty’s rabid fanbase was once viewed as niche — but with growing interest in the league and the Liberty’s first title under its belt there’s a feeling among supporters they’re finally getting their due.“It’s not just basketball,” said Veronica Garza, 40, a comedian from Park Slope and longtime follower of the charter WNBA squad now celebrating its first-ever championship.“It’s just fun, just inviting, it’s welcoming … You can’t find anyone who’s gone to a Liberty game in the past three or four years — I know a lot of people who’ve gone once with a friend, and now they go again.They just become fans, just because of the vibe.”The atmosphere of Liberty games is incomparable to any other teams in the league, said Garza, who has traveled across the nation to watch WBNA and NBA games alike, and even regularly trekked to White Plains during the Liberty’s two-year stint at the Westchester County Center.Even NBA games are tame in comparison, she said — and that includes supporters of the Brooklyn Nets, who share the Barclays Center with the Libs.“I remember going to a Nets game earlier this year, and it just seemed like no one wanted to be there.

There was an attempt at the weakest wave ever to get around.It was just not the vibe.

I was like, ‘Do people know they pay for these seats?'”Although there was always a core group of Liberty loyals, Garza noticed a significant explosion in the team’s popularity when they moved to the Barclays Center in 2020 — after two long and disappointing seasons in Westchester and a third played in a COVID-19 bubble in Florida.Liberty failed to make the playoffs in any of those seasons and had lackluster support from fans on its own turf at the County Center, an old and small arena owned by the county government.The team brought in an average of just 2,822 fans per game during that first season out of the Big Apple, a jaw-dropping 71% p...