Howard L.

We had our first visit to the NOW Arena (ex Sears Centre) to see the newest Cirque du Soleil OVO show.  This review is focused on the arena as a venue and not the Cirque du Soleil show itself which was a very colorful, dynamic, and entertaining 5 star show. It is a medium sized arena and has a stated capacity of 11,218.  The seating is tight and that's my biggest knock on the place.  We actually moved ourselves at intermission to a row that was unoccupied.  The row we were ticketed in was full, and with winter coats in hand, it just wasn't the most comfortable.   They had a few concession stands and with nothing particularly out of the ordinary and also not a huge number of choices.  The concourse was nice, clean, and spacious though.   Despite being in a wide open expanse in the boonies, parking is a major league $25.35 but I did save $5 by pre-paying in advance ($20.35 via their vendor ParkWhiz).  Egress and ingress was quick (the arena was only about 1/2 filled though) and the arena is right off of I-90, so it is in a logistically convenient location.  Overall, I'll go with a 3 star rating for the venue given the pluses and minuses.

Jack G.

** Kind Staff ** ** Delicious Food ** We went to Now Arena for a wrestling show. We had the privilege of box seats and boy was it amazing! The accommodations were great. Seats and views were great also. The food was fantastic, fast and the service was top notch! It's going to be hard to sit anywhere else after such an experience.

Jade M.

Went to my first Windy City Bulls game (which is located at the Now Arena obviously) and I had an excellent time. I found the arena to be well maintained and well organized. Parking is also free so that's always a plus. It was easy to find your section and row. I also found the food to be pretty good. Typically event food is pretty mediocre but not here. My favorite part? The different food venues available, this allows for the crowd to disperse depending on what type of food they want. This is so much better than having everyone wait in one concession stand line. Staff was great as well! Unfortunately, the bulls lost but nonetheless I had loads of fun.

Mel C.

We love NOW Arena for concerts, special events, and meetings. The food is consistently good, the arena is clean and has comfortable seating with a pretty good view from all seats. Levy Restaurants here does a wonderful job catering meetings, and the club area is nice to visit during events, too. I just wish there were more events booked here throughout the year as it seems good concerts or shows are scarce. Hoffman Esrates does have some unique special events here, like the NW Celtic Fest with food, displays, Celtics music, and dance. There's also plenty of parking, and it's an ideal area to grab dinner close by, at The Saddle Room or Main Event, and walk back to the arena.

Ryan D.

My husband and I went went to the NOW Arena to see a Windy City Bulls game. This was my first time going to the NOW Arena in several years. The Arena has been well maintained and they have added more food options as well. A few food concession stands were closed on this visit. I found the bathrooms to be clean enough. The seats offered adequate leg room. For someone well over six feet tall, this is very important. The game was fun to watch. They had many interactive exhibits and a huge fun zone with games and inflatables at the south end of the basketball court. Overall, we had a very fun time at the NOW Arena and can't wait to come back!

Joseph G.

NOW Arena formerly known as the Sears center is an arena on the smallish side that is located in Hoffman estates Illinois the giant suburb of Chicago. The arena has hosted and hosts several big events and is about a 25 min commute from the downtown area of Chicago. It is located in a rally nice area. Last time I visited the arena was back in late summer 2011 when a group of me and 5 other buddies attended the strike force event of fedor bs Henderson. The place did a good job hosting and the atmosphere for the main event was electric. It is a smaller arena and the seats are jammed packed and it can get hot in there when the crowd is big enough. I can remember having to walk out in the walkway a few times to her a breather and cool down. Overall cool arena that has hosted a bunch of cool events. Neat to check out a different part of Chicago and solid place to take an a event or show.

Josh W.

Easily accessible off the expressway, the parking lot was also easy in and out. Some of the events you don't have to pay for parking like this one. Otherwise it looks like it's $20 for certain events. The doors didn't open until 1 hour prior to the basketball game I can't speak for other types of sports. A little bit of a line to get through security check, you can bring small purses but big bags are not allowed unless they are clear. Took about 15 minutes to get through the front doors with the security check. Lots of things to do inside for the kids, some music being DJed in one area, raffle in another area. Not really a bad seat in the house I would say the stadium was about 1/3 full and it still had a nice five and atmosphere. The sound system is really good, lots of t-shirts being thrown throughout the entirety of the game. Definitely worth it especially with the face value of $25 a ticket. I think a family of four could spend about $160 for tickets, some drinks and a meal.

Jeremy J.

This is the NOW arena. It used to be called sears arena. It is a good place but seems smaller in comparison to other arenas I have been. Last time I visited the arena was back in late summer 2011 when a group of me and 5 other buddies attended the strike force event of fedor and Henderson. The place did a good job hosting and the atmosphere for the main event. It was a fun fight and a good building to attend.

Phil S.

I was here on 05/25/18 for my nephews graduation from Stevenson High School. My older sister and I arrived at 4:30 and waited for the rest of the family to arrive since they had the tickets. The event started at 5pm. True to form the ticket holders arrived late and we had to scramble. We found seats on the second level over looking the floor where the graduates sat. The Sears Centre Arena is the perfect venue for a large event with a large graduating class like Stevenson High School (somewhere in the 1,000 plus range). Yeahhh congratulations , but having to go through 1,000 plus people is a tedious time consuming event as each individuals name is read off. Still they all deserve their day in the sun for achieving this milestone.

Amy K.

Was that the Sears Center this last weekend for my daughters cheer competition. We paid $10 to park and it was free to enter. Upon parking, they has staff and police officers direction traffic. Nothing was hectic. As we walked in there was security checking bags and purses. The line was constantly moving. There was a pretty good view from almost everywhere in the building. My only gripe would be we bought 2 waters and a chocolate chip cookies for $19! OUCH! That is super over priced. All in all, a good experience

Steven M.

I had my first ever experience at the Sears Centre Arena on Saturday and it was a very memorable one. People from all over the world came here to celebrate the largest independent pro wrestling show in history and this was the venue that was lucky enough to get it. The place itself was pretty nice, clean, and the staff I dealt with were all pretty friendly. The spacious lobby was nice and definitely made it feel way less congested then it probably was. Although this place didn't have any sort of specialty food locations inside it still offered the basic hotdog, hamburger, pretzel options most people expect to get while watching a game or a concert. Once you enter the arena you immediately realize that there really isn't a bad seat in the house. Thanks to the show selling out in under 30 minutes I was stuck with seats located in the 200's and I still had a great view of everything that was going on. My only complaint is that it's a tad nerve racking getting to the seats since there is literally nothing stopping you from falling down into the row ahead of you if you stumble over someone's foot or trip. Overall, I liked the building, I enjoyed my big soft pretzel and sierra mist, and it was hands down one of the best wrestling show's I've ever witnessed. This place might not be perfect and it might not be the home to a professional sports team, but it's still a solid place to hold events.