Chicago Cubs: A detailed history of Wrigley Field attendance

Chicago Cubs: The highs and lows of Cubs attendance from the late-1920s through the late-1960s were impacted by both the team and the economy

Like the world around it, Wrigley Field saw itself grow bigger and better during the Roaring Twenties. The ballpark only seated around 15,000 when the Cubs moved to the corner of Clark and Addison from the West Side Grounds in 1916. The grandstand relocation and expansion of 1922-1923 followed by the double-decking of the grandstand in 1927-1928 allowed for the park to seat nearly 40,000 people. In 1927 the Cubs drew over a million people (1,159,168) for the first time in their history.

From 1927-1931 they drew over a million fans each year, with a then-record of 1,485,166 in 1929 when the Cubs won the pennant. Then after 1931, the numbers dipped again. Despite a decade of dominance, including three pennants, the Cubs did not draw at least a million fans once from 1932-1944. Over those 13 seasons, they averaged roughly 697,000 per season. Considering these years covered both the height of The Great Depression and World War II, it is not much of a surprise to see the dip.

Come 1945, when the war ended and the Cubs won another pennant, Wrigley saw the number jump over a million again. From 1945-1952, the Cubs averaged a yearly attendance of 1,151,188, with all but one of those years (1951) hitting the million mark.

It was from 1953 through 1967 when Wrigley would see its final stretch of regularly drawing under a million fans. Over that stretch, they never reached the million mark and averaged 779,657 per season. The greatness of Ernie Banks and later Fergie Jenkins, Billy Williams and Ron Santo did not stop those Cubs teams from finishing near or at the very bottom for a majority of those years. There was even a game in 1966 where they reportedly drew only 530 fans at the park. These attendance numbers are less likely attributed to economic hardship, and more to the simple fact the team was consistently bad.

Chicago Cubs: The popularity of the 1980s helped shape today’s Wrigley crowds

The 1970s were not known for being great for the Cubs, nor known for drawing massive crowds all the time. However, this is when things began trending back upwards. The late-1960s success under Leo Durocher helped bring the popularity of the Cubs back, and the fans came out to see them.

Since 1968, the Cubs have not drawn under a million fans outside of two seasons. One was the 1981 strike-shortened season, and the other was 2020 when there were no fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1984 they drew over 2 million fans for the first time ever. This was during their first run at the postseason since 1945. With Harry Caray calling games across the country on WGN, and the team back to relevance, this helped shape the Wrigley Field we know today. It also does help that since 1988 they play night games at Wrigley so more people can come out when games are not always in the middle of a workday.

From 1984 through 2003 the Cubs drew over 2 million fans each year, except for three seasons (1986, 1994, 1995). Important to note the 94′ and 95′ were both shorter seasons because of the strike. When the Cubs were drawing those numbers of fans, it often saw the days of summer feature packed houses, but still with some sparse crowds early in the April/May months. A good example is 1998 when Kerry Wood struck out 20 Astros in front of a smaller crowd of around 18K, but then seeing 38K+ during the summer and playoff stretch months. Over those 20 seasons, the Cubs would average roughly 2.35 million fans.

2004 was the first year in Cubs history they hit the 3 million fan mark, and this immediately became the norm. Even the 96-loss team in 2006 drew over 3.1 million fans at Wrigley Field. From 2004-2019 the Cubs averaged 3,062,545 fans per season. That’s around 38K per game. They drew between 2.4-2.6 million in the rebuild years of 2012 through 2014 and 2.92 million in 2015 when the bleachers were getting rebuilt in the renaissance season. Other than that, they would bring in over 3 million in all other seasons outside those.

In 2021 the Cubs drew under 2 million (1,978,934) for the first time since the 1995 shortened season. We are not counting 2020 because fans were not allowed in. It was the first time the Cubs had drawn under 2 million in a normal season of at least 160 games since 1986. Keep in mind the capacity allowed from April through June was limited due to COVID, and the team selling off the core saw a lot of no-shows in August and September.

So to sum some numbers up very quickly, here is a way to look at the attendance at Wrigley going back to 1927.

• Average attendance 1927-1983: 1,002,807
• Average attendance 1984 – 2003: 2,345,927
• Average attendance 2004 – Present: 2,998,804