The Chicago Sky didn't get off to the strongest start this season, but have begun to turn things around in recent weeks, and the team's star Angel Reese is repeatedly and regularly proving she's a force to be reckoned with whether or not her team is winning. But that doesn't mean that the rest of the WNBA likes traveling to the Windy City for away games — or that they will be lining up to join the franchise during free agency next year.
We're on day four of The Athletic's annual anonymous player survey reveal, and this time around the outlet reported that players polled overwhelmingly indicated the Sky is the worst-run franchise in the league — and it's all because of decisions that the front office and the team's owners have made.
The Athletic spoke to around 40 players (no rookies) starting from the beginning of the season. Of those 40.7% answered the Sky when asked which franchise is the worst-run. The Connecticut Sun were next with 29.6% of the vote, followed by the Los Angeles Sparks with 14.8% and the Wings with 7.4%. The "other" category also racked up 7.4% of the vote, and answers include the Dream, who received one vote, and the Indiana Fever, who received one vote.
When asked to back up their claim, a lot of players cited the Sky's lack of a practice facility as a huge part of the reason why they voted the way they did. As one person put it, "They’re still practicing in a rec center. That’s not … ideal." A second added, "A lot of stuff always seems to be going on there."
The Chicago Sky is supposed to have a new facility... maybe
The Sky announced plans to build a state-of-the-art practice facility in July 2024 and held a groundbreaking ceremony in October of the same year, but since then there have been very few updates (and people who have visited the site have reported that not a lot of ground has actually been broken).
It's troubling that there's been so little update about the facility and what the team and fans can expect — especially now that this is reflected in league-wide attitudes and perspectives about the Sky as an organization. The teams that were voted the best-run organizations — notably, the Mercury, Liberty, Storm, Lynx, and Valkyries — were in part because of the resources available to players and the support that's baked into the team experience.