Inquiring minds want to know: When will the Sky’s practice facility actually be done? Will it be ready in time for All-Star weekend, which begins in 24 days, after the Sky volunteered to host and planned to hold events there?
At this point, the answer sure looks like no.
Recent visits to the site, along with a review of Bedford Park meeting notes, show construction is still underway. The building’s shell is largely complete, but the facility does not appear close to being ready for hoopers to inhabit. Work remains on the signage, entryways, interior and parking lot. Through the windows, lifts and scaffolding are visible, as are unfinished ceiling and lighting areas.
The paper trail points the same way. Bedford Park’s May 28 board meeting shows invoices still being approved, change directives still moving and other late-stage construction business. Does that sound like a place where the StudBudz will be partying this All-Star weekend?
Not that any of this is the end of the world. Other teams have dealt with construction delays, too. The New York Post reported in May that the Liberty’s practice facility, expected to be ready by the 2027 preseason, still had little visible progress and an open permit application under review. The Wings’ facility timeline has been pushed back a full year.
But the Sky’s timeline has shifted more than once. When the project was announced, ownership pointed to the end of 2025. Then they promised the start of the 2026 season. By February, CEO Adam Fox was saying facility would be operational by “late spring.”
Expanding the project from $40 million to $60 million, which helped explain some of the delays, was a good thing. Belatedly recognizing they needed a bigger investment was not.
That makes this another missed opportunity on so many levels.
Meeting their latest target was an opportunity to build trust with fans, who have been hearing about this facility since it was announced almost two years ago.
It was an opportunity to build trust with star players around the league, who will be in town during All-Star weekend, looking on to see if this time really will be different in Chicago.
Most of all, it was an opportunity to build trust with their own players, who might like to establish a routine and show up to the same place every day instead of rotating from UIC to Loyola to Wintrust, as they’ve done this season.
These are players who have gone to bat for them this season.
Natasha Cloud, one of their key free-agent signings, went on Sue Bird’s podcast and said she’s “proud of Michael [Alter]” for reinvesting in the franchise.
Azurá Stevens, another key signing, has been vocal that the organization is changing for the better.
Elizabeth Williams, who has waited patiently and advocated diplomatically for upgrades to the player experience, stayed upbeat when talking to the Sun-Times about the “fluid” timeline players have been given about the facility.
But at a certain point, players — especially stars — get tired of things not happening when they were told they would.
And for an organization that has taken so many missteps since winning a championship in 2021, Sky ownership needs to prove that they know what they’re doing.
Delivering by All-Star weekend was a chance to show they can live up to expectations in the modern WNBA: manage timelines on a complicated project and deliver in the spotlight.
Instead, the Sky have not responded to questions about the current timeline, nor provided a public update since that February “late spring” projection.
Which always sounded oddly ambiguous. Late spring? Some time periods — spring, rush hour, Pride Month, All-Star weekend — exist briefly and then are over. You either catch them or you don’t.
The Sky did not.
Now, they’ll likely miss their chance to show off a finished facility during All-Star weekend. The Sky’s own players will just have to keep waiting.
