recruiting free agents this offseason<\/a> \u2014 making them well worth the wait.<\/p>\nDelays aren\u2019t just a concern for the team. While the Sky are the primary face of this construction, the Village of Bedford Park is the ultimate benefactor \u2014 and proprietor \u2014 of the greater Wintrust Sports Complex project.<\/p>\n
The Sky are footing 30% of the total construction costs while the village fulfills the 70% majority of the Phase 2 expansion of the complex. The Sky will not have any ownership rights over the facility \u2014 they will operate as tenants with a 10-year lease and a 10-year option to renew. But the team will have exclusive access to its section of the facility, which will include a players-only entrance.<\/p>\n
![\"Construction](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-SKY-FACILITY01.jpg\")
Construction continues on a new practice facility for the Chicago Sky on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, at the Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park. (Brian Cassella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
Throughout the planning process, Bedford Park Mayor David Brady has expressed enthusiasm about working with the Sky.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hear rumors sometimes that professional teams are hard to work with,\u201d Brady said during Wednesday\u2019s ceremony. \u201cThat\u2019s not true with the Sky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind the scenes, negotiations between the team and the village have been more tense. Members of village leadership have regularly voiced complaints and concerns about how these delays will affect their side of the Phase 2 project, primarily a set of turf indoor fields that will not be available this winter for football or soccer rentals.<\/p>\n
In a May meeting of the village board, Brady detailed frustrations that the village was not adequately brought \u201cinto the loop\u201d for the decision-making process surrounding the expansions that created a six-month delay in the project. The two parties have continued to bicker over the 70-30 payment split \u2014 especially for these new additions, which Brady said added $18 million to the total cost of the facility.<\/p>\n
Brady recalled one of these conversations with Sky owner Michael Alter, suggesting the Sky seek out assistance from the Reinsdorf family \u2014 owners of the Chicago Bulls \u2014 if they were unhappy with their partnership in Bedford Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re stuck because there\u2019s a lot of pressure on them to get it done, but they\u2019re never going to,\u201d Brady said. \u201cBecause Michael said, \u2018Oh, we talked to the city, we would have been in the city.\u2019 And things like that. I said, \u2018You\u2019re not going to get a better deal than this.\u2019 And if they want to leave, so be it, we\u2019ll just rent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite these intermittent disagreements, collaboration between the village and the Sky continued as planned.<\/p>\n
The two parties hosted a planning meeting after Wednesday\u2019s ceremony to look over a slew of suggestions from Sky players for additions or improvements to the facility.<\/p>\n
The Sky presented the roster with a detailed look at plans for the facility for the first time after practice on Sept. 2. The players offered a mixed response to the overall plans for the project, suggesting a wide range of potential improvements that included adding more office spaces and additional amenities in the locker room.<\/p>\n
Rawlinson admitted that some of those suggestions \u2014 particularly requests to move bathrooms closer to the practice courts \u2014 won\u2019t be used in the final plans for the facility. While the executive acknowledged that players might be disappointed that their input wasn\u2019t utilized, she said the planning team had to be realistic about delivering a finished training facility on time after initial delays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019ll be disappointment no matter what we do, one way or another,\u201d Rawlinson said. \u201cIf there\u2019s anything that\u2019s been true over the last year and a half, it\u2019s that you can\u2019t please everyone. But we have the aspiration to do what\u2019s right and what\u2019s best for the goals that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what\u2019s important is less about the sort of the tactics and the actual specific things, but more about the first principles of what we\u2019re trying to accomplish,\u201d Rawlinson said. \u201cIf we use those as the guideposts of what we\u2019re trying to do, if we do have to make trade-offs here and there, I think people understand it. They may not like it or want it, but they understand it, because we all are bought into what principles are what we\u2019re trying to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, the Sky are on the clock \u2014 seven months and counting until the 2026 season begins.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Sky were in a celebratory mood on Wednesday morning. Members of the front office and basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99439,438,99440,55263,19667,99,17857,99441,434,13017],"class_list":{"0":"post-164406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-bedford-park","9":"tag-chicago-sky","10":"tag-david-brady","11":"tag-michael-alter","12":"tag-nadia-rawlinson","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-training-facility","15":"tag-wintrust-sports-complex","16":"tag-wnba","17":"tag-wnba-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-SKY-FACILITY09.jpg\")
Chicago Sky co-owner and operating chairman Nadia Rawlinson, center, signs the final beam with other team and village officials as they mark a construction milestone on their new practice facility Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, at the Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park. (Brian Cassella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n