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Courtesy of Stars FC

One of the NWSL's founding franchises will finally have its own training facility. After 13 years in the league, Chicago Stars FC are ringing in the new year with their first-ever club performance center. The team announced the new project on Tuesday, which is set to break ground in Spring 2026 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

The training ground will be on a 10-acre area in Bannockburn, Ill., which already features a 45,000 square foot adaptive reuse building that the club plans to evolve in partnership with Populous and Marquee Development. The building will include intentional recovery modalities, a weight room with easy convertible indoor to outdoor access, and "spaces designed to enable mindfulness," per a club release. 

A Stars FC ownership group, led by Laura Ricketts, took over shortly ahead of the 2024 season with big ambitions to stabilize the club while building out its vision and maintaining a competitive club. The on-field success has been mixed in two years, with a clinging eighth-seed playoff appearance in 2024, followed by a last-place finish in 2025. 

Balancing roster and front office decisions with club culture building could feel like infrastructure takes a back seat, but that's not the case for the Stars heading into 2026.

"Long story short, it wasn't on the back burner at all. It's always been on the front burner of things we knew we would have to do to bring this club into the modern era," Stars FC club president Karen Leetzow told CBS Sports.

"But a lot of challenges, obviously, that we inherited with a club that needed to be addressed, perhaps more immediately, and also, real estate just takes a long time. This is one of many sites we looked at. We went and did a comprehensive review of sites all over the area. We talked to lots of different municipalities. Ultimately, ended up here for lots of technical reasons."

A new training ground and home field

The new project is just another piece of the franchise rebuilding under new ownership. An earlier piece was setting an attendance record in the league with a game at Wrigley Field, and leveling the playing field for public funding equity across men's and women's pro sports in Illinois. 

Another brick in the rebuild was making a move to a new neighborhood altogether. In September, the club announced its move to Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium in Evanston for the 2026 NWSL season. They traded in bleak monolithic SeatGeek Stadium for a more intimate, fest-like atmosphere, with a 12-000 capacity home upon the scenic shores of Lake Michigan and Chicago's iconic skyline. The new, temporary home venue comes with a flexible lease, a year-to-year solution.

"Because this club is coming from behind in a lot of ways, my goal was to find a location that suited our needs, that allowed for us to do state-of-the-art, but also could be done quickly, so that we could deliver for the players as fast as we possibly could," Leetzow said. "We decided on this one because it checks all the boxes, and we could pull it forward as quickly as '27.'"

Player-driven facilities

Many of the facility's features are based on player feedback. Leetzow and the club worked with the architecture firm to meet with players before any meetings with sporting or technical staff to ensure player-focused design on the future site.

The overall design will be by Populous, an architecture firm with NWSL experience, including work with Portland Thorns FC on their shared training facility alongside incoming WNBA side Portland Fire, and the NWSL's newest expansion franchise, Denver Summit FC.

"Coming from U.S. Soccer, and having been on the other side of sort of looking at what the NWSL is doing, it's really important to me, culturally, to always have everything we do be player-centric," Leetzow explained. 

"You know, we're starting this project. We want you to be at the center, but we need to know what you think. We need to know what's important to you. You guys have played and or trained around the country, around the world. What do you like? What do you not like? What is it that you know your vision for your workspace would be? And so they took three hours worth of feedback on the kinds of things the players were looking for, and that's what we're looking to deliver against."

Selecting a site with some preexisting infrastructure ensures construction and renovation can take place on an accelerated timeline. A close proximity to Northwestern in Evanston, and to the city proper, were also considerations in choosing the 10-acre space in Bannockburn. 

"We look forward to welcoming the Chicago Stars to Bannockburn," said Village Manager Stephanie Hannon. "This partnership supports the continued growth of women's professional sports while bringing a world-class athletic facility to our community. The Stars' commitment to excellence and their positive impact as role models for young women across the Chicagoland area make them a strong fit for our Village."

Proximity to Northwestern, Evanston, and Chicago

With the Stars' new stadium partnership with Northwestern, a year-to-year lease option brings flexibility within a stabilizing move. The new performance center will be accessible to Stars FC players and desired Chicagoland destinations, whether the club stays at Northwestern for one or more years.

"It's really important to have optionality. This is Chicago. Things happen all the time. We love the idea of being in Evanston as long as we can," says Leetzow.

"If you look at its proximity, for example, to the Bears training facility in Lake Forest, and they play all the way in Soldier Field, we have the advantage of being right on that highway, closer in and closer to all the things we might want to look at, from a playing facility, playing stadium facility standpoint. That said, Evanston has been really welcoming to us. It would be great if we could stay, but that is something we're looking at. Let's get the training facility done, and then pivot to our next infrastructure issue, which is the stadium situation."

A club-specific training ground is a decade-plus project in waiting. The franchise formerly known as Red Stars began its NWSL history playing games at Benedictine University, an institution with a Division III athletics program, and shared the field with football and lacrosse programs. 

They later moved to Bridgeview and played at SeetGeek Stadium, and despite the soccer-specific stadium, the club was never truly the primary tenant of the stadium or its surrounding training areas. 

Even as the Chicago Fire moved out of Bridgeview, the morning training schedules were often reserved for the MLS side, with the Stars often booked for later sessions or on different days altogether. A performance center of their own will finally change that. Sitting at the end of a cul-de-sac with gated entry, it also offers player safety and security.

"It will allow for player exclusivity, meaning it's theirs to use and theirs alone. And that is something we think we're bringing that not a lot of other clubs have, where they're sharing with a second or third team, or they're sharing with the community. That is not our intent at this point. This is a private elite space for these amazing players. It is exclusive use for the players," Leetzow said.

For now, Stars FC players will have to wait till at least the end of 2027 for renovations to be completed and to begin using the facility, but a locked door once thought impossible to open has been knocked down. New home games at Northwestern for the 2026 NWSL season and a future training site are not just a change of address for the club but a symbolic end to years filled with instability, and a strategic plan for the franchise's future.