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This Day In Sports…January 29, 1988:
In Pontiac, Michigan, 61,983 fans pack the Silverdome to watch the Detroit Pistons beat the Boston Celtics 125-108. There was star power that night, as Adrian Dantley scored 22 points for the Pistons and Larry Bird put up 25 for the Celtics. It was the largest crowd in NBA history—a mark that would stand for 10 years until March 27, 1998, when 62,046 jammed the Georgia Dome to watch Michael Jordan’s final game with the Bulls as a visitor in Atlanta. At least until he became a Washington Wizard.
The NFL attendance record came in an exhibition game in 1994, when the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers drew 112,376 to Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The regular season mark also involves the Cowboys, who filled Jerry’s World (Cowboys Stadium) with 105,121 for a 2009 game against the New York Giants. In college football, the record is an announced 156,990 in the “Battle at Bristol” at the famed NASCAR track in Tennessee for a matchup of the home-state Volunteers against Virginia Tech. The standard in a traditional stadium is the crowd of 115,109 for the 2013 Notre Dame-Michigan game in Ann Arbor.
Major League Baseball’s record was also in an exhibition game, when the official attendance reached 115,300 for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in 2008 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers’ arrival in California. (The team played its first four seasons at the Coliseum following the move from Brooklyn—Dodger Stadium opened at Chavez Ravine in 1962.) The regular season mark was set at the aforementioned Bristol Motor Speedway last year, as 91,032 attended an Atlanta Braves-Cincinnati Reds game. A guy who went told me it was a muddy, messy ordeal.
The largest crowd in NHL history happened, not surprisingly, at one of the league’s outdoor Winter Classic games at Michigan Stadium. A certified 104,173 fans could say they were there when the Detroit Red Wings faced off against the Toronto Maple Leafs on New Year’s Day, 2014. Would the Idaho Steelheads ever play a winter event at Albertsons Stadium? Sure, said Prater & The Ballgame Wednesday on Idaho SportsTalk—as soon as a promoter comes up with $1 million.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
