Bears President Ted Phillips yesterday said that there "aren’t any plans in place to expand Soldier Field, which has the smallest seating capacity in the NFL," according to Adam Jahns of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel "hasn't hid his desire to host the Super Bowl," and after MetLife Stadium hosted Super Bowl XLVIII, there has been "plenty of interest from cold-weather teams with outdoor stadiums." Phillips said, "We’re always trying to find ways to improve the experience and see what we can do. But currently there are no plans. There are no plans being developed. So we’re just going to kind of take things as we go and see what comes out of it.” At the moment, the "only upgrades in the works for Soldier Field deal with its concessions." Phillips: “We’re talking to Aramark, our concession company, about improvements" (SUNTIMES.com, 3/24). In Chicago, Rich Campbell notes top Bears execs are "realistic about the unlikelihood of Soldier Field ever hosting the Super Bowl." Bears Chair George McCaskey yesterday at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando said that the team "does not plan to bid for the game." McCaskey cited as a "deterrent the league’s three main criteria" for a Super Bowl host site, including a minimum number of hotel rooms, minimum average temperature in February and a minimum seating capacity of 70,000. McCaskey: "We would need a waiver on the average temperature, and at this point Soldier Field doesn’t have sufficient capacity to meet that requirement" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/25).
