How about seeing a team in the area you haven’t seen before? Where tickets are cheap. Where the players aren’t paid millions. Here’s a list of professional indepedent and minor league teams in Chicago. Since these teams play at different times of the year, you can look up in this chart which teams are playing this month.
| Sport | Team | Months Played | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| National Women’s Basketball League | Chicago Blaze | Jan – Mar | ||||||||||||
| National Lacrosse League (Indoor Lacrosse) | Chicago Shamrox | Jan – Apr | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Arena Football League (Indoor/Arena Football) | Chicago Rush | Jan – Jun | ||||||||||||
| International Basketball League (Men’s Basketball) | Elgin Racers | Mar – Jun | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| International Basketball League (Men’s Basketball) | Chicago Heights Soldiers | Mar – Jun | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Continental Indoor Football League (Indoor/Arena Football) | Chicago Slaughter | Mar – Jul | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Racing | Chicagoland Speedway | Mar – Sep | ||||||||||||
| Independent Women’s Football League | Chicago Force | Apr – Jun | ||||||||||||
| International Basketball League (Men’s Basketball) | Windy City Dawgs | Apr – Jun | ||||||||||||
| Major League Soccer (Outdoor Soccer) | Chicago Fire | Apr – Oct | ||||||||||||
| Major League Lacrosse (Outdoor Lacrosse) | Chicago Machine | May – Aug | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Women’s National Basketball Association (Women’s Basketball) | Chicago Sky | May – Aug | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Minor League Baseball | Kane County Cougars | May – Sep | ||||||||||||
| Minor League Baseball | Schaumburg Flyers | May – Sep | ||||||||||||
| Minor League Baseball | Windy City ThunderBolts | May – Sep | ||||||||||||
| Minor League Baseball | Joliet JackHammers | May – Sep | ||||||||||||
| National Pro Fastpitch (Women’s Softball) | Chicago Bandits | Jun – Aug | ||||||||||||
| Junior Hockey | Chicago Steel | Sep – Apr | ||||||||||||
| Major Indoor Soccer League | Chicago Storm | Oct – Apr | ||||||||||||
| Minor League Hockey | Chicago Wolves | Oct – Jun | ||||||||||||
| American Basketball Association (Men’s Basketball) | Chicago Soldiers | Nov -Mar | ||||||||||||
| Wrestling | Windy City Pro Wrestling | All Year | ||||||||||||
| Sport | Team | Months Played | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
Other resources:
• Chicago Athlete (running, cycling, mountain biking, swimming, skiing, triathalon)
• Chicago Independent and Minor League Sports on oursportscentral.com
this is an excellent resource! thanks i wanted to go see the force play, i guess they are done with their season now though….
what is the best Chicagoland sports team name? I can’t decide. I like Dawgs, Slaughter, Machine, and JackHammers. Though including Joliet on this list is a stretch. If you’re including Joliet, then you need to include Rockford. Are there any teams in Rockford?
Rockford? Is there ANYTHING in Rockford. haha. Just kidding, all my Rockford fans. haha. I was thinking about team names yesterday and how the Cubs are so popular. Actually, it seems to be the really popular teams tend to have names that are of real objects. Not abstract things like sky, jazz, rockies, etc. So given that. I like the Jackhammers the most. Dawgs is just too stupid with the spelling. Slaughter is too uh, gruesome. Machine is pretty cool, but it doesn’t fit into this team name theory. So Jackhammers it is. JACKHAMMERS RULE!