DETROIT, September 16 � Game 3 of 2003 WNBA Finals between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Detroit Shock provided the stage for a sellout crowd of 22,076 at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

This single game attendance figure broke the all-time previous Playoff and Finals mark of 19,563 set during Game 1 of the 2000 WNBA Finals at Madison Square Garden in New York. This number is also higher than any other regular season attendance mark, making it the highest attended WNBA game in the league�s seven-year history.

Including tonight, the top five Playoff attendance highs are as follows:

WNBA Playoff Attendance
22,076 Los Angeles at Detroit 9/16/2003
19,563 Houston at New York 8/24/2000
17,846 Los Angeles at Detroit 9/14/2003
17,666 Los Angeles at New York 8/29/2002
17,429 Charlotte at New York 8/26/2001


Detroit, making its first trip to the Finals, has also set the highest attendance mark for a Finals game. The top five Finals attendance highs are as follows:

WNBA Finals Attendance
22,076 Los Angeles at Detroit 9/16/2003
19,563 Houston at New York 8/24/2000
17,846 Los Angeles at Detroit 9/14/2003
17,666 Los Angeles at New York 8/29/2002
17,113 Houston at New York 9/2/1999


The previous all-time attendance mark was 20,674, set by the Washington Mystics on four separate occasions, twice in 1998 and twice in 1999, during regular season play.

Five networks carried 2003 WNBA Playoffs action, which tipped-off on August 28. ESPN2, NBA TV, Telemundo and Oxygen provided First Round coverage, while Conference Finals and WNBA Finals were televised in their entirety on ABC, ESPN2 and Oxygen. For the 14 teams in the WNBA, total attendance increased over last year with 2,101,653 fans attending games this season, the fourth year in a row WNBA attendance has topped 2 million.