g close up

by keith griffith n the Friday after O Memorial Day, Michael Alter, 51, wrapped up his day job in Skokie and headed to , where he works a second job with the , a WNBA team. Before the basketball game began, he dropped off a change of Real estate clothes in one of the private mogul locker rooms, which he uses when he bikes to the games. MichaelAlter Such are the privileges of be- has spent ing team owner. eight years Alter joined his wife and their oldest son in his court- building side seats, for which he pays Chicago’s full price. When asked if own- WNBAteam. ers typically buy their own tickets, Alter shrugs. “I don’t Could thisbe know,” he says. “I can’t really theseason answer ‘typical owner’ ques- histeamfinds tions, because I’m probably not a typical owner.” success, on Nor is Alter your typical andoffthe multimillionaire. Perpetually the most casually dressed court? person in the room, Alter is the president of the Alter Group, a real estate devel- opment firm that owns an estimated $600 million of commercial property nation- wide. He also carries a flip phone and commutes by bike. Among his past investments: a stake in The New Republic, which was sold to Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes last The year. Among his philanthrop- ic bona fides: starting the Chicago chapter of City Year, a year-long public service project whose 188 volunteers completed 300,000 hours of Developer community service. In hisbusiness andphilan- thropic endeavors, Alter has rarelyexperiencedfailure. attendance has inched upward successful, butIhaven’tyet on the court — the team Butowningthe Skyhas given each year,lastyear’saverage in themajor measures—we has yet to finish a season him ataste of it. Thewomen’s crowdof5,500 rankedthird-to- haven’tbeen successful on above .500. But the underly- basketballfranchise,which lastinthe WNBA. “It’sbeen thecourt, andwehaven’tbeen ing economics of owning a he founded in 2005, is the alot harder than Ithought it profitable yet.” WNBA team haven’t proven only WNBAteamthat’snever wasgoingtobe,”Alter says. Part of the Sky’s trouble hospitable either. In 2008, the madethe playoffs. Although “I feel determined to make it emanates from its struggles Comets, which won the league’s first four champi- close up g onships, folded. Last year, in the league’s 16th season, only two of its 12 teams turned a At 6-foot-5, is profit: the , Sky’s most marketable star yet. independently owned by a ap photo casino, and the NBA-affiliated . It doesn’t help that the Sky, besting Adidas to sign the like the WNBA itself, gets rookie. little attention. Even last year, Delle Donne is already at- when the team started 7-1, the tracting sponsorship interest Chicago media took scant in the team, too. notice. Before this season, “For a small business Alter can only recall one local to align themselves with sports columnist attending someone like Elena is great,” a Sky game in seven years says Matt Bercovitz, owner of — Sun-Times writer Rick ketball — very haphazardly,” arethe team’smain revenue Berco’s Popcorn in Lincoln Telander, who was there to he says. “I really didn’t know streams.Through thefirst Park, who is talking to the interview to a player on the commercial real estate, but I five games, attendance is up Sky about promoting his opposing team. “The media was attracted to the idea of 15 percent andsponsorship brand at home games. “She piece is shocking,” Alter says. being a steward.” revenue is up 20 percent. In has the potential to be one of, “As far as we’ve gotten as In 1993, he took over as May, theteamannouncedits if not the most, recognized a society, people don’t take president at the Alter Group, first long-term local televi- faces in women’s basketball, women’s sport seriously.” and has since steered the sion deal,afive-yearcon- and that’s very appealing as a Alter himself hadn’t heard firm in a different direction, tract with WCIU (theteam potential sponsor.” of the league until 2004, says longtime Alter Group hasn’tdisclosed theterms). Team President andCEO when he attended the NBA’s executive Tom Silva. “His Its game against theTulsa Adam Foxbelievesthatgrowth All-Star Game in Los Angeles father was from the old line Shock, televisedonESPN2, will beget more growth. “This as a guest of Adam Silver, of developers, where it was wasthe most-watched is somethingthat’sgoingto then the president of NBA about building and holding regular-season WNBAgame get built overtime,”saysFox. Entertainment and now the forever. Michael comes from in nineyears. “Hopefullywith more people league’s deputy commission- the new breed, which is really Pre-sales for the next home youhavemoremedia, andthe er and chief operating officer. about putting the old product game have passed 7,000, visibilityattracts more of the After Silver told him that on the market.” selling out the arena’s lower corporate community, which Chicago had no WNBA team, In 2000, Alter sold off more bowl. That’s an important funds thething.” Alter paid a reported $10 mil- than $100 million of his fa- threshold — a team executive And unlike those of his lion franchise fee to bring the ther’s development portfolio, says that consistently selling NBA counterparts, Alter’s Sky to town in 2005. establishing a capital base out the lower bowl would team expenses aren’t eye- Alter’s personal wealth that sustained the company’s likely bring the team into the popping. WNBA payroll is comes mostly from the real growth through two reces- black. The Chicago Wolves, capped at $900,000 — less estate development company sions. “He really understands a minor league hockey team, than the minimum salary for founded by his late father, the Wall Street side,” says turn a profit at Allstate in a single three-year NBA vet- Bill, who started out by flip- Silva. “He’s a very good front of crowds that average eran. His non-basketball staff ping small residential lots. player when it comes to tim- in the 7,000s. The two teams’ is lean, at around 20. By the end of his career, Bill ing his developments.” ticket prices are roughly Could this be the year Al- Alter was scouting develop- Alter sees the Sky as a comparable. ter’s team, and its P&L, break ment sites in a twin-engine business, but also as a way to At the of the through? Much will depend plane. engage the community. “It’s uptick in interest is Elena on the Sky’s in-game per- Growing up, Alter had hard for me to distinguish the Delle Donne, a 6-foot-5 formance. Last year the Sky little interest in his father’s two, and to me that’s one of rookie who’s proven to be the started hot before a series of real estate business. Instead, the challenges and motiva- Sky’s most marketable star injuries sent them to a 14-20 he got a law degree from the tions of it,” he says. “I want yet. Delle Donne is being finish. University of Chicago and to demonstrate that you can promoted along with fellow “I feel really good about went to work for a large firm take something that has civic rookies and where we’re at,” says Alter, downtown. But in 1990, he importance and make a suc- Skylar Diggins in the league’s whose team was 4-2 at press left the firm to spend a year cessful business out of it.” “3 to See” campaign. Delle time. “I am more positive tagging along with his father Alter’s madesignificant Donne’s draft sparked an today than I have been since at the family business. “I got strides toward achievingthat endorsement bidding war, the very beginning, when I into commercial real estate goal thisseason. Television, nearly unheard of in the probably didn’t know any- the same way I got into bas- sponsorships andticket sales league, with Nike eventually thing.” photobymikeschwartz