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The facilities arms race that has dominated college sports in recent years has reached the WNBA, as the Chicago Sky announced Thursday they will build their own. Major WNBA stars had blasted the Sky for their public, suburban practice facility, with Kahleah Copper requesting a trade from the Sky this most recent offseason after telling the Chicago Sun-Times the team needed to “keep up with the Joneses.”
The $38 million practice facility is set to open in December 2025 ahead of the 2026 season.
“Contrary to all the comments, and I try not to read comments on social media, but any of those that have hot takes about our journey, this was not something that was just thought of,” Nadia Rawlinson, the team’s co-owner and operating chairman since January 2023, tells Front Office Sports. “We’ve been making this a priority for the last 18 months, at least, if not longer.”
The news confirms a Sunday report from the Sun-Times that the team will move its practice facility out of the public recreation center in Deerfield to Bedford Park, significantly cutting down travel time for players and allowing them to live in downtown Chicago. But unlike the earlier news, the team announced Thursday that the facility won’t be the existing Wintrust Sports Complex, but a new independent building next door.
That makes the Sky another one of the increasing number of teams in the league to commit to a dedicated practice facility. The Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm, and Phoenix Mercury have all unveiled private facilities since April 2023, which top talent like Candace Parker, Nneka Ogwumike, and Kahleah Copper have credited as reasons why they signed with those teams. The billionaire owners of the Liberty have also said they will build a dedicated space for the team, which currently practices on one court at the Barclays Center.
“A lot of things have to be true for this moment to have existed and for this inflection point to occur,” Rawlinson said of the trend. “You have investment, people like me coming in with a level of sophistication around, how do we think about making this a business, not a cause, and making this sustainable over time and running a really great enterprise. And you have people who are really investing real dollars in this in ways that are more than a hobby.”
The Sky’s facility will be a partnership with Bedford Park. The village heavily invests in sports marketing with the Bulls, White Sox, Cubs, University of Illinois, and Northwestern, yet recorded only 602 residents in the 2020 census. In very Chicago fashion, Rawlinson says Bedford Park and Sky officials shared Potbelly sandwiches as they worked through the deal. “We’re really proud to stand alongside them in this public-private partnership,” she says.
Players and fans have long criticized the team’s practice space and resistance to invest in a new one. The 40,000-square-foot facility will house two courts, recovery rooms, and a private kitchen, among other amenities. The team’s first choice for new player housing is the South Loop in downtown Chicago, Rawlinson says. Players will have year-round, 24-hour access to the facility (a luxury they don’t currently enjoy in Deerfield).
The center will also house a content creation studio and beauty stations, signaling that the Sky want to encourage players to lean in to their newfound national stardom off the court. Chicago rookie and content creator Angel Reese has 3.8 million followers on both Instagram and TikTok. (The Sky’s accounts have 550,000 followers on Instagram and almost 100,000 on TikTok.)
“We embrace our players being their best selves in whatever way they want to express that. Everybody delivers what’s required for their day job, and they also can have an expressive life outside of the Sky,” Rawlinson says. “We want to create the facilities and support to show them that we see them, and that this is something that’s great also.”
Rawlinson also acknowledges the season-ticket spike that surprised many Sky fans last week, with some prices doubling or tripling in cost. She says the increase isn’t linked to the new facility, as some fans had wondered.
“We could have done a little bit better about communicating that up front, honestly, so there wasn’t such a shock and awe,” Rawlinson says. “I don’t want people to think this was a reckless decision. It was one to take advantage of the market and the value creation we have put together that will increase the fan experience.”
