Inquiring minds want to know: When will the Sky’s practice facility be done? Will it be ready in time for WNBA All-Star Weekend, which begins July 24, after the Sky volunteered to host the extravaganza and planned to hold events there?
At this point, the answer sure looks to be no.
Recent visits to the site, along with a review of Bedford Park meeting notes, show construction is still underway. The shell of the building is largely complete, but the facility doesn’t appear close to being ready for players to inhabit. Work remains to be done on the signage, entryways, interior and parking lot. Lifts and scaffolding are visible through the windows, as are unfinished ceiling and lighting areas.
The paper trail points the same way. Bedford Park’s board meeting May 28 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?
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, which is expected to be ready by the 2027 preseason, still showed little visible progress and had an open permit application under review. The timeline for the Wings’ facility 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 it promised the facility would be finished by the start of the 2026 season. In February, CEO Adam Fox was saying it would be operational by “late spring.”
Expanding the project from $40 million to $60 million, which helped to explain some of the delays, was a good thing. The Sky belatedly recognizing they needed a bigger investment wasn’t.
That makes this another missed opportunity on so many levels.
Meeting the latest target was an opportunity for the Sky to build trust with fans, who have been hearing about the facility since it was announced almost two years ago.
It was an opportunity for them to build trust with star players around the league, who will be in town during All-Star Weekend, looking on to see whether this time really will be different in Chicago.
Most of all, it was an opportunity for them 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 have 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 [principal owner] Michael [Alter]’’ for reinvesting in the franchise.
Azura 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 with 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 made so many missteps since winning a championship in 2021, Sky ownership needs to prove it knows what it’s doing.
Delivering by All-Star Weekend was a chance for the Sky to show they can live up to expectations in the modern WNBA by managing timelines on a complicated project and delivering in the spotlight.
Instead, the Sky haven’t responded to questions about the current timeline, nor have they provided a public update since that ‘‘late spring’’ projection in February.
That 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 didn’t. Now their own players will just have to keep waiting.
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