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.