Time to Embrace Fans Being Allowed to Return to United Center
The announcement we’ve been waiting for has arrived: The Bulls will welcome fans back to the United Center beginning with their May 7 game against the Boston Celtics. Naturally, there are catches to that given the ongoing pandemic. Only 25 percent capacity will be allowed, and mandatory masking and social distancing will be enforced. There are many more things to know, of course, and they all can be read here.
The other catch is that the Bulls only will have four regular-season home games left by May 7. With their playoff hopes fading fast, the opportunities for fans to attend are very limited. The Blackhawks will have even fewer home games left in their regular season (two), and their postseason hopes are pretty much dead. Both United Center tenants are among the last in their respective leagues to open their games up to fans.
Naturally, all of this has caused a bunch of scorn from a lot of people who are beyond sick of the delayed complete reopening of Illinois. They’ve questioned what the point of this is at a time when the teams simply will be playing for pride and draft position when the building reopens (or in the Bulls’ case, bettering their chances to keep their pick). They feel insulted that this is happening now and would rather have waited for this to happen next season when fans will be allowed for the entire slate of home games, maybe even at full capacity. Simply put, it is one more frustration out of a COVID-19 pile that has been growing for some time now, and they just want their lives back to what they were before the past 13-and-a-half months.
While it’s understandable to have all of these feelings, this really should be a moment to be happy. The fact that they’ve made this announcement shows how much progress we’ve made in the fight against this dreaded virus. Nearly a third of Illinois’ population has been fully vaccinated, and new hospitalizations related to COVID-19 have started to come down after increases that lasted for a month. There’s real hope that the virus soon won’t have the stranglehold over us that it’s had for too long now.
Plus, haven’t you wanted to get back to watching live sports at the United Center for some time now? It’s terrific that the city and state finally will allow us to get a taste of what we’ll be able to experience far more regularly, if not completely regularly, when the new season starts in the fall. Even if the Bulls aren’t making the postseason for the fifth time in six years, some of you surely have that itch that needs to be scratched. The sooner you can experience things like the legendary introductions and the Dunkin’ Race, the better.
This is a moment to fully embrace what is happening. We’re slowly moving back towards that normalcy we’ve all been craving, and this means we’re one step closer to it. Just a little bit of normalcy is welcome right now, even if we still have to wear masks and aren’t allowed to roam the arena freely. Going to a Bulls or Blackhawks game is exactly the distraction we need from all the stress and angst that we surely have been feeling longer than we thought we would.
Only one thing matters now: We’ll soon be allowed to visit the United Center again. Take everything else out of the equation, and this is one of the best pieces of news to come down recently. Chicago’s baseball teams recently welcomed fans back, and it’s time for the two indoor major pro teams to do the same. Both the organizations and their fans should be joyous about what’s happening now, and it’s definitely an encouraging sign of what’s to come as far as attendance for the 2021–22 season.
