Address | 1901 West Madison Street |
---|---|
Location | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
Coordinates | 41°52′50″N 87°40′27″W / 41.88056°N 87.67417°W |
Public transit | Green at Damen GreenPink at Ashland Blue at Illinois Medical District |
Owner | United Center Joint Venture (UCJV) (Chicago Bulls 50%/Chicago Blackhawks 50%)[1] |
Operator | United Center Joint Venture |
Capacity | Concerts: 23,500 Basketball: 20,917 (standing room to at least 23,129[2] Hockey: 19,717 (standing room to at least 22,428)[3] |
Field size | 960,000 sq ft (89,000 m2) |
Scoreboard | Mitsubishi Electric[4] |
Construction | |
Broke ground | April 6, 1992[5] |
Built | 1992–1994 |
Opened | August 18, 1994 |
Renovated | 2009–10 (300 Level) 2014 (exterior) |
Expanded | 2016–17 (atrium) |
Construction cost | $175 million ($360 million in 2023 dollars[6]) |
Architect | Populous (then HOK Sport) W. E. Simpson Company, Inc. Marmon Mok |
Project manager | International Facilities Group, LLC[7] |
Structural engineer | Thornton Tomasetti |
Services engineer | Flack + Kurtz[8] |
General contractor | Morse Diesel/Huber Hunt & Nichols[9] |
Tenants | |
Chicago Bulls (NBA) (1994–present) Chicago Blackhawks (NHL) (1994–present) | |
Website | |
unitedcenter |
The United Center is an indoor arena on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is named after its corporate sponsor United Airlines. With a capacity of nearly 21,000, the United Center is the largest arena by capacity in the NBA, and second largest arena by capacity in the NHL. It also has a seating capacity of 23,500 for concerts.
Opening in 1994, the United Center replaced the Chicago Stadium, which was located across the street. It is owned by the Reinsdorf and Wirz families, owners of teams that use the arena, and which also own much of the surrounding land. The first event held at the arena was WWF SummerSlam. Due to the lockout, the Blackhawks did not move in until January 1995. The center has also hosted the 1996 Democratic National Convention,[10] and the 2024 Democratic National Convention.[11] The arena served as the municipal emergency hub in the early days of the COVID 19 pandemic[12]
The arena is home to a statue of basketball great Micheal Jordan, posed mid-air in his iconic 'flying' jump, erected in 1994. Originally outside, it now stands inside an atrium extension and event space which was added to the Center in 2017.[13] The Jordan statue has since been joined by statues of Blackhawks ice hockey players Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, while a statue of various Blackhawks players is located across the street on the site of Chicago Stadium.