Chicago to Join WNBA

The WNBA will put an expansion franchise in Chicago for the 2006 season, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced Tuesday.

Michael Alter, a Chicago businessman and real estate developer, is the primary owner. The Chicago team will be the second in the WNBA to be owned and operated by non-NBA owners. The Connecticut Sun, which was in Orlando, Fla., before moving to Uncasville, Conn., in 2003, is the league’s first independently owned franchise.

“I see this as a [business] model for the league to go both ways on expansion,” Stern said during a conference call. “Chicago ... could be a catalyst for those looking to an independent [ownership] model, or those NBA teams that will see buyers willing to purchase their WNBA teams and becoming non-NBA owners.”

Chicago -- the team will be named later -- will raise the number of WNBA teams to 14, giving the Eastern Conference seven teams, same as the West. Awarding an expansion franchise also counters recent league moves that folded the Portland and Miami teams after the 2002 season, and Cleveland’s after the 2003 season.

Stern said the WNBA had “solidified financially” and was considering further expansion for the 2007 and 2008 seasons, but did not elaborate.

Chicago will play its home games in the Pavilion on the campus of the University of Illinois Chicago, which seats 7,500.

Alter, who with his fellow investors paid a $10-million entrance fee for the franchise, said he preferred a more intimate setting for now than the larger United Center, where the NBA’s Chicago Bulls play.

“We feel because the [UIC] arena is smaller, we could better create a demand for tickets, and push the demand for season tickets,” Alter said, adding he thought the team could be profitable in three years.