The Bears next March will "break ground on an expansion project that doubles the size" of their Halas Hall HQ, according to Kenney & Jahns of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Bears GM Ryan Pace "spearheaded the expansion project in an effort to modernize their football operations." Team officials "toured college and other NFL facilities in the offseason for ideas." A 162,500-square-foot building "will be added to Halas Hall, their current 143,000-square-foot home." The new building "essentially will be a player training and performance center." It will "include a 13,000-square-foot indoor turf field, a 133-by-26 video projection wall and a virtual-reality room." The weight room "also will be expanded by 2,000 square feet." Position meeting rooms, the draft room, the cafeteria and other offices "will increase in size as part of the expansion, which was designed by the architecture firm HOK." Mortenson Construction is the general contractor for the project, which is "expected to be finished" by August '19 (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 11/18). In Chicago, Colleen Kane noted the sports medicine space will "expand to four times its current size and will include a hydrotherapy pool." In a separate project, the Bears are "also adding two outdoor fields to bring their total to four." Such a project "fuels speculation that the Bears might want to move training camp to Lake Forest from Bourbonnais, though no such plans were announced" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 11/18).
