Chicago Sky Finally Ditching Suburban Rec Center As Practice Facility

The Chicago Sky are expected to unveil plans for a new practice facility before the end of the WNBA’s Olympic break, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday. The team is considering a move to the Wintrust Sports Complex near Midway International Airport, a $38 million facility opened in 2021, according to the outlet. It was not immediately clear whether the team would buy or lease the space.

The report comes just days after the Phoenix Mercury unveiled their new $100 million practice facility over WNBA All-Star weekend. The facility has hot and cold pools, an underwater treadmill, a private chef, a steam and sauna, and 24-hour access for players and staff. This kind of investment, and that of other recently opened facilities for WNBA teams in Las Vegas and Seattle, are exactly what’s driven star players out of Chicago for years.

“I want to see the organization keep up with the Joneses,” Kahleah Copper told the Sun-Times last summer, seven months before the 2021 Finals MVP left the Sky for the Mercury in February. Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike, two players Chicago wanted in free agency, both signed with Seattle. “I felt the energy of the investment. … I realized it was something that should be a priority on my list,” Ogwumike said about picking the Storm.

Since 2011, the Sky have practiced at the Sachs Recreation Center in Deerfield, about 30 miles from the team’s home arena. Sachs is owned by the Deerfield Park District. Players’ team-issued apartments are near the facility, so the team stays in a hotel closer to the arena on game days.

Earlier this month, general manager Jeff Pagliocca told the Sun-Times the Sky hopes to have a new practice space starting next season. The reported new complex would be in the much closer suburb of Bedford Park. The 120,000-square-foot complex is owned by the village and has plenty of court space, though it has fewer bells and whistles than other new WNBA facilities. The Sun-Times reported from one source that the team would upgrade the facility should it become the new practice center.

The Sky did not immediately respond to a Front Office Sports request for comment.

The team recently raised ticket prices for season-ticket holders, with some fans’ costs doubling or tripling. Two season-ticket holders told FOS they’d have understood the massive price hikes had the Sky said the money would fund a new practice facility.