Lawsuit Raises Questions About Sky Ownership Practices

A lawsuit filed in Cook County has placed the ownership structure of the Chicago Sky under renewed scrutiny, raising questions about governance, transparency and fiduciary responsibility at a moment when franchise valuation across the WNBA is rapidly rising. The complaint, first reported by Law360, was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County by Steven Rogers against Michael Alter, the team's majority principal owner. According to the Chicago Tribune, Rogers — identified as a minority owner — alleges that Alter improperly took control of the team's finances in a way that increased his own payout while denying minority owners their proportional share of the franchise's growth. The Tribune also reported that the lawsuit claims "Alter's actions breached his fiduciary duty to the minority investors...and unfairly deprived them of the value of their investments." The Tribune noted that the lawsuit alleges Alter told minority investors that their stakes had "dropped in nominal value, even as the team value had in