The Colorado Chill were a professional

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

team playing in the

National Women's Basketball League The National Women's Basketball League, often abbreviated to the NWBL, was an organization governing professional basketball leagues for women in the United States. The league was founded in 1997 and began play in the Fall of that year. The league ...

(NWBL) from 2004 to 2006. Based in Loveland,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. They were Colorado's second and longest-lived women's pro basketball team. The Chill won the final two championships of the NWBL, which folded in 2007. In 2007, investors attempted to and failed to raise enough money so that the team could join the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA) for the 2008 season.

Franchise history

The Chill played in all league championship game and won back-to-back championships in 2005 and 2006. They were undefeated on their home court for 26 games until losing to the San Diego Siege on February 14, 2006. They compiled a 47–18 record for a .723 winning percentage and never finished out of first place in the regular season. Star players for the Chill included

Ruth Riley Ruth Ellen Riley Hunter (born August 28, 1979) is a retired American professional basketball player (a center), playing most recently for the Atlanta Dream in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Her Notre Dame team won the NCAA ...

Katie Cronin Katie Cronin (born September 9, 1977) is a former American professional basketball player and coach who played one season in the WNBA for the Chicago Sky. She played college basketball at Colorado State. She also spent 2 years coaching as an a ...

, and

Becky Hammon Rebecca Lynn Hammon ( rus, links=no, Бекки Хэммон; born March 11, 1977) is an American-Russian professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces of the Women’s National Basketball Associati ...

NWBL Team Records

{, class="wikitable" , - ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="3%" , Season ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="3%" , W ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="3%" , L ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="3%" , Win % ! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="3%" , Result , - , align=center , 2004 , , align=center , 15 , , align=center , 6 , , align=center , .714 , , align=center , Regular Season Champions , - , align=center , 2005 , , align=center , 16 , , align=center , 8 , , align=center , .667 , , align=center , NWBL Champions , - , align=center , 2006 , , align=center , 16 , , align=center , 4 , , align=center , .800 , , align=center , NWBL Champions

End

On June 19, 2006 the Chill's owner, Dave King, announced that the Chill would not participate in the NWBL's 2007 season. He said that the league and other owners owed him money, and that the league did not have adequate prospects for financial stabilit

The league later disbanded before the 2007 season started, making the Chill the final champions.

2007: Attempt to join the WNBA

On March 16, 2007, King announced that he acquired most of the $15 million needed to revive the Chill as an expansion team in the WNBA for the 2008 WNBA season, 2008 seaso

Kroenke Sports Enterprises, owner of the NBA's

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

, expressed active interest in hosting some of the Chill's games, in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, at the

Pepsi Center Ball Arena (formerly known as Pepsi Center) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Denver, Colorado. It is situated at Speer Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in downtown Denver, and is served by two nearby exits off Interstate 25. A light r ...

. On September 12, 2007, however, it was announced that the Chill would not be an expansion team for the 2008 season due to the lack of funds raised. Basketball teams in Colorado