Hoffman Estates

The Sears Centre is an 11,000-seat multi-purpose family entertainment, cultural and sports center in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a northwest suburb,... 25 miles from Chicago. The arena has 43 luxury suites on two separate levels. The venue opened on October 26, 2006, with performances by Duran Duran and Bob Dylan; it was estimated to attract over 750,000 visitors annually. The Sears Centre is located near the former site of the Poplar Creek Music Theater, a venue that was also located in Hoffman Estates from 1980 to 1994. Food services are provided by Levy Restaurants. Recently, the Village of Hoffman Estates took over ownership of the arena after Ryan Companies Inc. walked away from the arena due to the arena's lack of success. However, since the village took over the arena and hired Global Spectrum to manage it, the arena has shown improvements. Recently, the arena added a hockey team, which lasted one season before the team ceased operations after narrowing missing the playoffs.
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William Beckett is a musician best known for his work with the now-defunct Chicago based band The Academy Is , who were signed to Atlantic... Records/Fueled by Ramen/Decaydance Records. While still in high school in 2002, Beckett and guitarist Mike Carden came together from rival bands in Chicago to form The Academy Is.... In addition to founding the band, Beckett and Carden are credited as the primary songwriters. In 2007, the BBC described Beckett as a mix of Adam Lazzara and Prince, labeling him "utterly captivating". Beckett started writing music for his own private pleasure because he did not like the material that was on the radio anymore. He said in an interview that his sister found him playing his songs in the basement and started joining him. She was his first audience and gave him her honest feedback on the material he wrote. Prior to forming The Academy Is, Beckett performed in an acoustic band called Remember Maine, with Nick Scimeca, releasing the album The Last Place You Look when he was 17 years old.
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Illinois is the 25th most extensive and the 5th most populous of the 50 United States, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a broad economic base. Illinois is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the... state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, via the St. Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean; as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. In the 1810s, settlers began arriving from Kentucky. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. The state's population originally grew from south to north. Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan.
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