NEWSLETTER
Actions speak louder than words. And a picture is worth a thousand words. And words are …
Oh, just look at the United Center “crowd” at tip-off last night:
The UC crowd at tip-off. pic.twitter.com/y83yRQ3MI8
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) December 12, 2019
Bulls’ fans are happily sipping their coffee out of a mug with that trusty phrase plastered front and center. Ahh, that’ll wake ya up!
The United Center is currently experiencing the sort of attendance woes it hasn’t seen since 2004, and according to NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson, ownership is well aware of the drop. In his most recent mailbag, Johnson stated the empty seats have “caught the Reinsdorfs’ attention” and it “absolutely is being talked about internally.”
Oh, do tell!
Well, unfortunately, that’s all the information we got from Johnson, but it sure is nice to hear it’s being talked about behind closed doors. The lack of support is almost an unavoidable topic of conversation, with the average nightly attendance now 11th in the league. For context, the Bulls held the No. 1 average attendance spot in the NBA from 2010-2018 before falling to second place a season ago. Johnson also makes sure to point out that this is the third-straight year the Bulls have ranked outside the top-10 in capacity, demonstrating that while the average was still high, the Bulls have been losing fan’s interest.
In the Bulls game against the Toronto Raptors on Monday night, the team recorded its lowest attendance since December 16th, 2004 with only 14,775 fans in the building. And if we’re being honest, it was probably a good amount less than that.
All Bulls fans could do was hope the Reinsdorfs would grow aware of their displeasure, and I think it’s safe to say they’re getting the message loud and clear. And the problem doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon, as the Bulls have one of the toughest remaining schedules in the NBA.
Better basketball and an accountable front office will bring butts back into the seats, and until then, ownership is going to think long and hard about how to make that happen.
Hey, at least it shouldn’t be that hard! With how quiet the United Center has been, it feels like a great place to think.
