The grass isn’t the only green thing at the Bears’ home field. This week Soldier Field earned a prestigious LEED certification for its recycling and energy efficiency programs. more ›

The Bears first regular season game will be at home Sunday Sept. 9 against the Indianapolis Colts. more ›

The Bears have missed the playoffs four out of the past five seasons, but that isn't stopping them from raising ticket prices for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons. more ›

A suspicious package at museum campus this morning caused CTA reroutes and a traffic backup on Lake Shore Drive, but it turned out to be a package of beans. more ›

A wind advisory must be serious when Skilling Central announces it in all caps. more ›

Would it hurt the Park District to get some field maintenance pointers from Roger Bossard? more ›

The event was scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m., but organizers waited until 5:45 p.m. to announce the event would be canceled. Even Urlacher was pissed off. more ›

90s alt-rock titans Pearl Jam, featuring one-time Evanston, IL resident Eddie Vedder, recently debuted the trailer for the Cameron Crowe-directed PJ20. So how much of Chicago will be in this bad boy? more ›

The Fire acquitted themselves well against Premier League legends at Saturday's friendly at Soldier Field. more ›

As Benjy mentioned earlier, a lot of folks around town are referring to Bears-Packers III Sunday as the biggest game in Bears history. Never mind Super Bowl XX or Super Bowl XLI. With the NFC championship and a trip to Super Bowl XLV on the line, it's certainly the biggest game in the rivalry in 70 years. It's also the biggest sporting event to be held in Soldier Field (old or new models) since the legendary heavyweight championship boxing match between former champion Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, the man who beat him for the title a year previous in Philadelphia. Their September 1927 rematch is also forever known as "the Long Count fight." more ›

Seriously, we should just start a series called "I Remember My First Beer." Someone at yesterday's Bears-Seahawks game caught video of (we presume) a Bears fan briefly going commando, who should not even be thinking of doffing clothes, regardless of how much natural insulation he may be carrying on his frame. more ›

There are still some tickets available for the USMNT's friendly against Poland at Soldier Field on Saturday at 7pm. more ›

Not everything was hunky dory at Soldier Field last night following the Bears dramatic victory over the rival Green Bay Packers. After the game, as Packers safety Nick Collins headed down the tunnel towards the locker room, a rowdy fan allegedly yelled racial slurs at Collins (according to Collins, the fan used the n-word) and Collins retaliated by throwing his mouthpiece at the fan. League spokesman Greg Aiello told the AP, "[The NFL is] in the process of reviewing all the facts." WITI Fox 6 in Milwaukee spoke to Collins who apologized for his outburst. The network also aired footage but NFL rules prevent them from posting the clip of Collins' confrontation with the fan online. more ›

The Queen of Daytime TV is apparently mulling over the option of taking the final episode of her television show on the road... to Soldier Field. Yes, as she looks for audience members from her very first show (pssst, we found one for you!), plans are already moving forward on her final show. Well, the final show before she begins a completely new show which, you know, sort of undermines the whole concept of it being a "final" show but we digress. In an interview with TV Guide - excerpts of which can be found here - The Big O hints at things like potentially reaching out to President Obama to make an appearance, that frustration over the popularity of is what first motivated her to create her own network, and the possibility that she may take her final show to Soldier Field. more ›

US Soccer announced yesterday that the boys are coming back to Chicago for a friendly against Poland on October 9. With the huge Polish community in Chicago, as well as Poland needing serious tuneup work before the 2012 Euro Cup, which they're hosting along with Ukraine, the game looks promising. USAMNT have an okay history against Poland (who did not qualify for this summer's World Cup). The 3-1 drubbing at the 2002 World Cup wasn't much fun, but the 3-0 win in 2008 sort of balances that. more ›

Say what you will about Wrigley Field's bleachers or people scromping in the bathrooms at The Cell, at least the food vendors at the city's four major sport stadiums (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB) apparently get a gold star in terms of (lack of) health code violations. Of the four major stadiums - Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field, United Center, and Soldier Field - only Soldier Field reported any critical violations. According to the report put together by ESPN, 12 percent of vendors at Soldier Field were cited but, "Almost all violations were due to a lack of hot water." The Cell, Wrigley, and UC reported zero percent of vendors as having critical violations. Compare these to, say, the violations found at Florida stadiums, like this one at Sun Life Stadium where the Miami Dolphins play: more ›

Jake was enthusiastic about Deadmau5's show at Soldier Field last week. If you missed it or just want to know what all the fuss is about, this video gives you a good glimpse into what went down. [via] more ›

One thing often true of the different types of dance music is that its respective crowds don't converge much. House heads go to house shows, electro banger fiends mosh at electro banger clubs, and dubsteppers self-induce whiplash at dubstep warehouse parties. For the most part, there isn't much intermingling between these or any of the scenes of electronic dance music. But then one might go to a show, say Coachella or Lollapalooza, and be in awe that all of these sects have combined into one little melting pot of glowsticks, gelled blowouts, tie dye, skinny jeans and wayfarers. Such was the case for Friday's Deadmau5 show at Soldier Field's Stadium Green, proof positive that his draw reaches beyond scenes. And after that show was over, us in our sweat-drenched t-shirts with our dilated pupils, we knew exactly why. more ›

Most of our picks for Weekend Dance Party are relatively small, low-cost affairs. Good DJs play Chicago every weekend, at clubs of about 100-200 people, and no one thinks anything of it. But then someone like Deadmau5 rolls through town and changes the whole concept of what a dance party is. Akin to renowned DJs/producers Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren and Paul Van Dyk, Deadmau5 fills not only clubs but full-on venues and--in some cases--even stadiums. Joel Zimmerman and that freakish mouse head of his will do just that this Friday at Soldier Field's Stadium Green--and it's our clear-cut pick for this week's Weekend Dance Party. more ›

Irish rock mega-ultra-super-star band U2 won't be making it to Chicago this summer, after all. The North American leg of their 2010 tour, including the July 6 show at Soldier Field, has been postponed until 2011 as front-man Bono continues to recover from emergency back surgery, required after he injured his back last week while preparing for the tour. No word yet on any make-up appearances in the US or if the injury will affect the band's European leg of the tour, kicking off in August. more ›

Usually tenants are appreciative when their landlord wants to spruce up the place a bit, but the Chicago Bears declined the Chicago Park District's request to replace the natural sod at Soldier Field with an artificial surface. more ›

Ahh yes, those videos bring back some fond memories. Before their talisman El Hadji Diouf turned into a diving, annoying EPL "star," before Senegal's failure even to qualify for World Cup 2006 or 2010, they were darlings. Who can forget that run in 2002 (with by far the coolest jerseys of the tournament)? more ›

While we still wait to see if Northwestern ever manages to schedule that game at Wrigley, we at least know of another college football tilt that'll take place in Chicago. It was announced today that the Iowa Hawkeyes will battle the NIU Huskies at Soldier Field to open the 2012 season. The teams faced off at Soldier Field in 2007 with Iowa coming away 16-3 winners. It could be a big fall for football at Soldier Field as Notre Dame has previously declared their intentions to play a game that year at the stadium as well. more ›

Northwestern's ongoing efforts to land a game at Wrigley Field aren't the only major college football efforts going on for the city. Notre Dame is apparently looking into using Soldier Field for a 2012 game, the Tribune is reporting. With a game this upcoming season slated for Yankee Stadium (against Army), one in 2011 at Washington D.C.'s FedEx Field (against Maryland), and future games against Syracuse slated for the new Meadowlands stadium, a game at Soldier Field makes sense for the school's plans to play on some of the biggest stages available. more ›

The trouble over Soldier Field's turf? It could get resolved even more quickly now that Mike Martz has been signed as the Bears' new offensive coordinator. The mind behind the '99 Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf" Martz's high-flying offense could be the push needed to get the Chicago Park District to follow through on a $1.5 million proposal to replace the Soldier Field grass surface with FieldTurf. The team, though, has been reluctant to make the change so far. more ›

There will be no FIFA World Cup soccer at Soldier Field for a while. Chicago got dealt another international sporting event blow today when the U.S. World Cup bid committee announced the 18 cities it will include in its final bid as host cities and Chicago is not on the list. Nevermind that Chicago was a host city for the 1994 World Cup - not to mention host of the Opening Ceremonies (as well as several international friendly matches and World Cup qualifiers). Indianapolis and Kansas City were the only Midwest cities to make the cut. During the live announcement, "Olympic fatigue" was mentioned as a factor (ouch). more ›

• The Chicago Police Dept has officially ruled Michael Scott's death a suicide.
• Authorities hauled in 380 pounds of marijuana - estimated to be worth $2.5 million - in a raid on the South Side earlier today.
• A malfunction at the steam plant that provides heat and hot water to UIC Medical Center wreaked havoc earlier today; the malfunction has since been fixed.

Bummed you missed U2 for their recent stint at Soldier Field? Don't worry, Bono + The Boys have scheduled a return trip for July 6, 2010 as they extend their massive tour. With several open days on either side of that date, additional shows are also possible. Tickets will go on sale in November, though specifics haven't been announced. [Tribune] more ›

Earlier this week, we mentioned the current U.S. bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Yesterday, the bid committee announced a new push for cities to show their support for their role in the bid, including Soldier Field. As of this afternoon, Chicago had around 4,500; Seattle is the overall leader with over 13,000 supporters signed up and surprise Atlanta (~11,000) coming in second. more ›

Now that we're past the Chicago 2016 failure, attention can now turn to the next major sporting event bid: the World Cup. While the U.S. men's national team has secured its spot in South Africa for next summer's World Cup (woo! CONCACAF Hexagonal Champs!) and Rio prepares to host the 2014 World Cup as a tune-up for the 2016 Olympics, bidding is underway for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments. And, of course, the U.S. has thrown its hat in the ring for both. The U.S. joins a bevy of countries competing for 2018 and 2022 including England, Russia, and Australia. more ›