Things to Do

United Center

Home to the Bulls and Blackhawks, plus major touring concerts — the Michael Jordan statue, getting there, and event-night logistics.

By the Extra Chicago editorial team·Updated Oct 20262 min read·2 sections

Aerial view over downtown Chicago, home to the United Center arena

Photo: Markus Leo / Unsplash

The short version

✓Shared home of the Chicago Bulls (NBA) and Chicago Blackhawks (NHL), on the Near West Side.
✓The Michael Jordan statue is a free photo stop even without a game that night — it moved inside the arena's atrium in 2017, so it's only viewable during the atrium's own opening hours, not around the clock.
✓It's also Chicago's largest indoor concert venue, so a United Center listing on your dates might be a touring act rather than a game.
✓There's no direct 'L' stop at the arena — most visitors rideshare, take a game-day shuttle, or book parking ahead of time.
✓Basketball and hockey share the building from October through spring, so this is fundamentally a cold-weather-trip venue.

One arena, two franchises, and a statue worth the detour

United Center opened in 1994 on the Near West Side, replacing the old Chicago Stadium a block away, and it's carried both the Bulls and the Blackhawks ever since — a genuine shared-tenancy arrangement rather than one team hosting the other as a guest. On a Bulls night the building leans basketball-arena bright and loud; on a Blackhawks night the ice and the crowd's rhythm change the atmosphere entirely, even though it's the same bowl. The Michael Jordan statue — Jordan mid-leap, dunking over the arena's name — is one of the most reliably photographed pieces of Chicago sports iconography; it stood outdoors for over two decades before moving into the arena's atrium in 2017, so it's now viewable for free during the atrium's own opening hours rather than around the clock.

United Center is also, by a wide margin, Chicago's biggest indoor concert venue, so it's worth double-checking what's actually on your date before you build an evening around it — a arena-tour headliner sells out the same building a Bulls game does, and the listing alone won't always make it obvious which one you're looking at.

A packed baseball stadium crowd with Wrigley Field in the background

Chicago Sports Venues Guide

How United Center compares to the city's other three major-league venues.

Fulton Market district street scene with outdoor dining at night

West Loop / Fulton Market

The nearest dining neighborhood — worth a pre-game stop before heading over.

Getting there, and planning around an event night

United Center's one real logistical wrinkle is transit: unlike Wrigley Field or Rate Field, there's no CTA 'L' stop within easy walking distance. Most visitors handle it one of three ways — rideshare directly to the venue, catch one of the game-day shuttle buses that run from nearby CTA stations on event nights, or book a parking spot in the arena's lots in advance, since day-of parking prices and availability both get worse the later you leave it.

Because the building hosts the Bulls and Blackhawks in the same season, plus concerts stacked in on off-nights, it's worth building a little slack into an event-night plan: traffic and rideshare pricing both spike hard in the hour before puck drop or tip-off, and the surrounding blocks are more industrial than pedestrian-friendly, so this isn't a venue built for wandering before the doors open the way Wrigleyville is.

No direct 'L' stop — plan rideshare, a game-day shuttle, or advance parking.
Shared home of the Bulls (NBA) and Blackhawks (NHL), October through spring.
Also the city's largest indoor concert venue — confirm you're looking at a game and not a touring act.