Similar to this season’s television ratings, the Chicago Bulls attendance numbers are back where they should be.
Home of the largest arena in the NBA, the United Center ranked comfortably at the top of the average home attendance leaderboards. The Bulls drew in an average crowd of 20,881 a night with a grand total of 856,148 attendees, per ESPN’s attendance data. The Philadelphia 76ers sat second on the season with an average of 20,655 fans a night and a total of 846,867 in the Wells Fargo Center.
Final attendance figures from the NBA regular season. #Thunder finished 28th in average attendance and 27th in total attendance. pic.twitter.com/KuN9hkVvof
— Dylan Buckingham (@DylanBuckingham) April 11, 2022
The resurgent Bulls also became the NBA’s best out-of-town draw. Chicago’s road games averaged 18,198 fans, which squeaked ahead of both the Los Angeles Lakers (18,179) and Golden State Warriors (18,111), respectively.
All things considered, it’s never shocking to see one of the NBA’s largest markets near the top of this category. But the Bulls positioning themselves back at the top of the totem pole does coincide with this front office’s goal to restore relevancy. Before the limited attendance season in 2021, the Bulls drew just the 11th-largest nightly crowd over the 34 games before the 2020 league shut down. The slippage could also be seen in 2019 when the team finished second in average crowd for the first time since the 2009 season.
Anyway, I can’t wait to see this rejuvenated Bulls crowd hard at work during the organization’s first playoff series since 2016-17. The Madhouse on Madison is back, baby!