Alyssa Naeher is still working on getting the name right.
The longtime Chicago Stars captain and goalkeeper couldn’t help it. Throughout media day Monday, Naeher kept tripping over the team’s rebranded name, which changed from “Red Stars” to “Stars” last fall. It was a habit, after all, built over a decade with the club.
But if the Stars are going to move forward, president Karen Leetzow feels the franchise has to find a way to separate itself from the past.
“It’s really important that we become the city’s team,” Leetzow said. “We’re trying to just elevate our visibility in the city. When I arrived, the team had been around for a decade but you would ask people on the street and they wouldn’t know who the Red Stars were.”
For the Stars to become the city’s team, they need to spend more time in the city. As the Stars begin a new era of club history, the team is continuing to pursue the possibility of practicing in their own facilities — and playing games in Chicago.
Training facilities are a focal point for women’s sports at large. In the WNBA, independently owned training facilities have become a baseline for teams to remain competitive in free agency. The Chicago Sky are currently constructing a $38 million training facility in Bedford Park scheduled to open ahead of the 2026 free agency cycle.
A similar trend is sweeping through the NWSL, which recently abolished the college draft to create the most competitive version of free agency in professional sports. Naeher believes training facilities will become a key focus for players across the league in upcoming seasons.
“It’s not just a perk,” Naeher said. “It’s your lifestyle.”
The Stars have already taken a step forward this season — for the first time in club history, they are finally the top priority at their training facilities.
The MLS’s Chicago Fire had been prioritized as the primary tenant of the shared training facilities at SeatGeek Stadium. But the Fire relocated to Endeavor Health Performance Center in Roosevelt Square this year, giving the Stars more freedom in their current location.
The improvements have been immediate. The Fire used to receive the preferred practice slot in the morning at SeatGeek, forcing the Stars to hold daily practices in the early afternoon. This meant hotter training conditions and a clogged commute, along with an impractical daily schedule for a professional athlete.
Now, practices are held in the mornings, giving players more time for active recovery and off-field obligations. After years of feeling “rushed” out of SeatGeek by the presence of the Fire and other tenants, Stars players feel they can relax and spend time together before and after training, a crucial piece of developing a strong team dynamic.
“I’ve always felt strongly that if we were able to adjust that, that it would help us with a lot of different things — mental health, nutrition, a proper sleep schedule,” midfielder Cari Rocarro said. “It allows us to get a routine.”
The Stars front office has interfaced with the Sky over a partnership bolstered by Stars owner Laura Ricketts’ partial ownership of the Sky. But finding a location for an NWSL team’s training grounds is a different challenge from a basketball facility.
Soccer training facilities require a larger real estate footprint to accommodate multiple fields in addition to interior gyms, recovery amenities, film rooms and more. And these grounds require higher demands of upkeep to maintain pitches at competition quality. This is why both the Stars and the Fire have struggled to find appropriate space to construct a training ground despite consistent interest from both clubs.
Leetzow is still pursuing a new site for the Stars in 2025, but the team still doesn’t have a timeline for a potential relocation for their training or game locations. Despite disputes over displacement during Riot Fest last summer, Leetzow said the Stars have been content in their partnership with the village of Bridgeview over the last year, which means the team may be open to remaining in their current location after the expiration of their lease in December.
For now, the elevated status of being the primary tenant at SeatGeek Stadium has been an ample improvement. But players and executives are realistic about the necessity of eventually moving into their own facilities.
“It’s just a different level of professionalism,” Naeher said. “Our culture is important to us — not just for our team, but for our organization and community from the players to staff to front office. That type of space would be a huge step in the right direction.”
The Stars saw the importance of hosting games in Chicago last season when they broke the NWSL attendance by hosting a game at Wrigley Field in June.
Rocarro remembered fighting back tears on the field when the attendance of 35,038 was announced midgame. The game represented a stark change from the team’s average attendance of 7,156 — and the potential of how the team could perform if games were more accessible to the average Chicagoan.
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The Stars are planning more events in Chicago this year. Leetzow noted that another Wrigley game is entirely dependent upon the success of the Cubs — if they make the playoffs and host games in October, the Stars will not be able to play in the stadium in 2025.
The team might not move to the city this year, but Leetzow feels the club is taking significant strides toward improving its standards of player treatment. The president emphasized the importance of incremental change for the Stars — starting with the team’s rebranded name and crest, which will debut in the season opener against the Orlando Pride on March 14.
Amid those incremental changes, Stars players are embracing the opportunity for a fresh start in 2025.
“We get that moment now to define who we want to be,” forward Ava Cook said. “That’s a rare chance in sports.”
