CHICAGO — If the Chicago Bears dare to dream big about a new stadium in Arlington Heights, they can find inspiration in SoFi Stadium, the new star attraction of the NFL.
The league’s largest and most expensive arena and the site of Sunday’s Super Bowl, SoFi, just outside Los Angeles, is overwhelming fans with its sweeping curves and epic scale. The stadium and its development highlight certain parallels to the Bears’ proposal to buy and redevelop Arlington International Racecourse. Both reflect desires to leave century-old stadiums and home cities for vast sites that allow for planned enclaves of surrounding restaurants, hotels, offices, stores and homes.
Attending a game at SoFi could make a Bears fans swoon. Visitors arrive through a huge entrance hall, bathed in sunlight from a towering translucent canopy. Fans descend palm-tree lined staircases to seats wrapped in a tight bowl around the playing field, built 100 feet underground. Once the game begins, the space lights up with images from the world’s largest center-hung video screen, and vibrates with deafening crowd noise.
