Chicago To Celebrate Sky's WNBA Championship Down Michigan Avenue

CHICAGO — The city hasn’t hosted a championship since 2016, but after the Chicago Sky mounted a furious comeback in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals Sunday, that will change on Tuesday.

City officials announced Monday that the Sky’s first league championship will be celebrated starting at 11 a.m. Tuesday when a parade kicks off at Wintrust Arena. The parade route will travel north down Michigan Avenue from Roosevelt Road to Randolph St. and then head East to Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

A rally will begin at noon, the team said, when city officials and others will celebrate the team’s first WNBA title. The Sky, who entered the playoffs as the No. 6 seed, closed out the best-of-five championship series with an 80-74 victory over the Phoenix Mercury in front of a solid-out crowd at Wintrust Arena.

"The City of Chicago could not be prouder of our winning Chicago Sky," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement on Monday. "We are thrilled to throw a celebration worthy of this historic moment in Chicago sports and congratulate the Sky for bringing our city its first WNBA title. Let's get ready to paint the town #SkyTown!"

The rally is free to attend but will need to pass through security checkpoints off of Michigan Avenue and Monroe Street to enter.

In an interview with the “Mully and Haugh” on 670AM on Monday morning, Lightfoot called the Sky’s championship-clinching victory “a thriller.”

“It’s all about the Sky, a Sky championship and we’ll have a great celebration (Tuesday),” Lightfoot said in the show.

She added: “This is an amazing story, so many storylines, but importantly, what I saw (Sunday) was a lot of dads bringing their daughters to watch these incredible women play at the height of their talent….we needed this.”