Seattle Storm become 2nd WNBA team to open their own practice facility

SEATTLE (AP) — Alisha Valavanis walked around as the new performance center for the Seattle Storm was unveiled on Thursday filled mostly with joy and a little sadness.

The joy for the CEO of the Storm — who has been with the team for nearly a decade — came from helping bring to completion the second standalone practice facility dedicated to a WNBA team following the Las Vegas Aces last year.

The twinge of sadness for Valavanis was personal. Valavanis’ father, Spero, was an architect that created some of the initial design ideas for the facility. Eventually, a team of architects created the final building, but Valavanis said there were legal pads and napkins that had drawings and ideas from her dad which led to the finished product.

Her father never saw what the final building looked like with the two practice courts, an area for high performance training, therapy pools, a massive locker room and player lounge. He died earlier this year.