The WNBA will be returning to the street and playground roots of basketball with its first-ever outdoor game, to take place in New York on July 19th.

The contest, between the host New York Liberty and the Indiana Fever, will be held at the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. National Tennis Center, the site of the U.S. Open each summer. Ashe Stadium, which holds more than 20,000 fans, is located in Flushing Meadows, Queens, just a few hundred yards from Shea Stadium, which is home to the New York Mets.

In case of a rainout, the outdoor WNBA game will be held indoors the next day at Madison Square Garden, the Liberty's home arena.

The outdoor WNBA game is seen as a novel event to create publicity and marketing buzz for the WNBA, which tips off its 12th sesason in May. The league's men's counterpart, the NBA, will hold an outdoor game next year, but it will be a preseason game. The July 19th WNBA contest between the Liberty and the Fever is a regular-season game.

This will be the second time the Liberty has played in an unusual venue for a basketball game. In 2004 the Liberty played a number of games at Radio City Music Hall while Madison Square Garden was being prepared for use as the home of the Republican National Convention.