Chicago Bliss, former lingerie football team, returning to Sears Centre

After a two-year absence, the Chicago Bliss women’s football team — which previously played in lingerie — will be returning to the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates for two home games this spring.

Tickets have already gone on sale for 9 p.m. games on Friday, April 19 and Friday, May 10.

There have been some changes, however, since the Bliss left the Sears Centre in 2011. It played the 2011 season at Toyota Park in Bridgeview and then took the following season off.

For one, their league is no longer called the Lingerie Football League but the Legends Football League.

Sears Centre General Manager Ben Gibbs said the league has made some changes to the female players’ uniforms to emphasize more the true sports nature of the game and less the sensationalism. The league will continue to play 7-on-7, full-contact tackle football, but players will wear a different type of revealing uniform.

The league is playing its season in the spring rather than the fall. That adjustment may have been a factor in taking the 2012 season off, Gibbs said.

The Sears Centre is happy to welcome back the team whose games in 2009 and 2010 proved to be popular, crowd-pleasing events, Gibbs added.

“They drew a very nice crowd when they did play here,” he said. “It’s not a surprise to me that they came back.”

Gibbs said he doesn’t know anything about the relationship the Bliss had with Toyota Park but felt the team may not have known what it had at the Sears Centre until it left.

The team has booked no further ahead than its two 2013 home games but Gibbs said that’s not unusual.

Representatives of the Legends Football League could not be reached for comment Friday.

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No More Lingerie: Women’s Football League Introduces ‘Performance Wear’

There’s an old saying that you should “dance with the one that brought you.” The sports franchise formerly known as the Lingerie Football League has built a following by featuring players frolicking in lingerie. Now, however, league officials have decided its time to take a more serious approach.

The women-only football league that plans to debut in April in the Gwinnett Arena has a new name and new uniforms.

The Lingerie Football League announced Jan. 9 in Los Angeles that it now is calling itself the Legends Football League. And its uniforms will now be “performance wear,” instead of the lingerie that characterized its previous years.

“This is the next step in the maturation of our now global sport. While the Lingerie Football League name has drawn great media attention, allowing us to showcase the sport to millions, we have now reached a crossroad of gaining credibilty as a sport or continuing to be viewed as a gimmick,” said Mitchell Moraza, LFL founder and chairman, in a news release.

Yes, the gender of the participants still will be evident. But the typical lingerie trim has been eliminated, as well as sexy references in the league logo. And the new subtitle is “Women Of The Gridiron.” (See the attached video.)

The Atlanta franchise will debut in the Gwinnett Arena on Saturday, April 13, vs. Omaha. Tickets are $15-75, according to the information on the Gwinnett Arena events calendar. A second Steam game is scheduled for Saturday, May 18, vs. Cleveland.

“Similar to mixed martial arts and professional wrestling, the LFL is a package of sporting competition and entertainment which makes it a unique brand in which women are the key athletic attractions,” the LFL release said.

“Now we are able to focus more on the sport itself,” LFL athlete Christine Moore said in the attached video.

Will the “Legends Football League” hold the same attraction as the “Lingerie Football League”? Let us know in the comments.

You might also be interested in reading:

Lingerie Football League Coming to Gwinnett

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