CHICAGO, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The WNBA announced Tuesday there will be a new franchise in Chicago that begins play in 2006.
NBA Commissioner David Stern said new women's professional basetball team will be owned and operated by Chicago businessman Michael Alter.
The Chicago team, which will be named at a later date, is the second WNBA team to be owned and run outside of the NBA. In 2003, the Connecticut Sun became the first independently owned and operated WNBA team.
Alter is President of The Alter Group, one of the nation's ten largest commercial real estate developers.
The WNBA will have 14 teams in 2006. There will be two coonferences, the Eastern and the Western Conferences, made up of seven teams each.
Chicago will join Charlotte, Connecticut, Detroit, Indiana, New York and Washington the East.
