Ottawa Senators sign goalie Ullmark to four-year contract extension

WARE, England (AP) — The Chicago Bears remain focused on the city’s lakefront as the location for a nearly $5 billion stadium development project, team president Kevin Warren said Wednesday.

Warren held a news conference at the team’s hotel outside London ahead of Chicago’s game on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

A proposal unveiled earlier this year calls for an enclosed stadium next door to their current home at Soldier Field as part of a major project that would transform the lakefront. The Bears are asking for public funding to help make it happen.

The Bears also own property in Arlington Heights, but Warren maintained that the preference is Chicago.

“That Museum Campus is fantastic, and especially with the backdrop of Chicago and the architecture of that city,” he said. “That remains our focus at this point in time.”

The plan calls for $3.2 billion for the new stadium plus $1.5 billion in infrastructure, potentially including a publicly owned hotel.

“The status is we’re continuing to make progress. We stay focused still to be able to be in the ground, start construction sometime in 2025,” Warren said. “We’re having regular meetings with key business leaders, key politicians, just staying focused and on course.

“This is a long journey. This takes time,” he added. “I’ve been there before. We’re exactly where I thought we would be at this point in time.”

Warren, the team’s president and CEO, was asked if the Chicago site is “imminent or inevitable” and he responded: “I don’t know (about) saying imminent or inevitable. I think it’s the best site as of now.”

The proposal calls for just over $2 billion from the Bears, $300 million from an NFL loan and $900 million in bonds from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.

The next step, Warren said, is to “get approval from a political standpoint.”

Warren noted that the plans for a new building will be generic enough to fit more than one site.

“You want to build a stadium where it really becomes agnostic from a location standpoint, because it takes so much time from a planning standpoint,” he said.

In his previous leadership role with the Minnesota Vikings, Warren oversaw plans and development of U.S. Bank Stadium.

“Anything that’s great in life, anything that lasts 50 years, takes a lot of energy and effort,” he said Wednesday.

“I’m confident in the political leadership, the business leadership, our fan base, that we’ll be able to figure this out,” he added. “It will become a crown jewel for the National Football League.”

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LONDON (AP) — Wimbledon is replacing line judges with electronic line-calling, the latest step into the modern age by the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament.

The All England Club announced Wednesday that technology will be used to give the “out” and “fault” calls at the championships from 2025, eliminating the need for human officials to make them.

Wimbledon organizers said the decision to adopt live electronic line calling was made following extensive testing at the 2024 tournament and “builds on the existing ball-tracking and line-calling technology that has been in place for many years.”

“We consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating,” said Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club. “For the players, it will offer them the same conditions they have played under at a number of other events on tour.”

The move makes the French Open the only Grand Slam tournament without some form of electronic line-calling. The Australian Open and U.S. Open already had eliminated line judges and only have chair umpires on court.

Line judges at Wimbledon were dressed in famously elegant uniforms and, for traditionalists, were part of the furniture at the All England Club.

Bolton said Wimbledon had a responsibility to “balance tradition and innovation.”

“Line umpires have played a central role in our officiating set-up at the championships for many decades,” she said, “and we recognize their valuable contribution and thank them for their commitment and service.”

Line-calling technology has long been used at Wimbledon and other tennis tournaments to call whether serves are in or out.

At the U.S. Open, there has been no line judges — and only chair umpires — since 2021, with Hawk-Eye Live electronic line-calling used for all courts.

The All England Club also said Wednesday that the women’s and men’s singles finals will be scheduled to take place at the later time of 4 p.m. local time on the second Saturday and Sunday, respectively — and after doubles finals on those days.

Bolton said the moves have been made to ensure the day of the finals “builds towards the crescendo of the ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles finals, with our champions being crowned in front of the largest possible worldwide audience.”

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AP tennis:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

The Saskatchewan NDP appears to be continuing its focus on health-care issues during the provincial election campaign, with party candidates set to hold press conferences today outside hospitals in three communities.

The party has press conferences scheduled outside hospitals in Yorkton, Rosthern and Melville.

The NDP has been pressing the Saskatchewan Party since the election campaign began last week over the state of the province’s health-care system, including staffing shortages, long wait times and overcapacity hospitals.

NDP Leader Carla Beck promised on Tuesday that if elected on Oct. 28, her government would spend more than $1 billion on health care in a plan that would aim to reduce wait times for treatment by focusing on hiring, training, recruiting and retaining workers.

Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe has said his government’s health-care plan that was announced two years ago is working and more than 1,300 recent nursing graduates have been hired, though he has acknowledged more work is needed.

Moe and Beck are both set to be in Saskatoon today for campaign events.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.