The New York Liberty’s planned practice facility in Greenpoint is still in the works, but the latest look at the site suggests there’s a long way to go before it’s ready.
The team announced in 2025 that it would build its own facility in Brooklyn for the 2027 WNBA season, a $80 million project set for the area between Ash Street and Newtown Creek, just east of Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint. But with only a few months left in 2026, questions are starting to surface about whether the building will be operational in time.
Brooklyn-based journalist Norman Oder visited the site on Tuesday and reported that there appears to be no outside legal or similar obstacle holding things up. Still, he noted the visible work hasn’t moved far enough yet.
There just hasn’t been vertical progress, as shown in my photos, taken either from a distance or through windows in the construction fence. Nor has there been a formal groundbreaking ceremony or any announcement of milestones.
Oder also raised doubts about whether the original goal - getting the Liberty into the new 75,000-foot facility before the start of next spring’s WNBA season - can still be met.
[W]inter is not the best season to make up construction time.
Unless Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment shares benchmarks, any claims that the project is on track for pre-season, however, should be taken with a grain of salt.
Training camp starts April 1. Since moving to Brooklyn, the Libs have practiced at the small court just off the main entrance at Barclays Center
Back in May, the Liberty said the project was moving forward and that groundwork had begun at the Newtown Creek site. Around that time, the organization told Madeline Kenney of the New York Post that everything remained on schedule. Nearly four months later, that view still stands.
Kenney quoted Marissa Shorenstein, BSE’s external affairs vice president, as saying that foundation work at the site represented the longest phase of construction, “so you won’t see any meaningful manifestation of the structure for quite some time.”
For Liberty ownership, the facility would be another major investment in a franchise that has poured money into the team and into Brooklyn throughout the 2020s. If the building comes together, it would give the Liberty a much larger dedicated space of their own and further reinforce their place among the WNBA’s elite organizations.
For now, though, the calendar keeps moving. Opening Night 2027 is still ahead, and the Liberty still have a lot of construction left before they get there.
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