Over and Back: Stories About NBA History · Over and Back Classic NBA Podcast

Back Home in the Dome: A Show About the NBA's Biggest & Smallest Crowds Ever

·1 hr 1 min·5 clips

The San Antonio Spurs are trying to break the NBA's all-time attendance record by filling the Alamo Dome with 65,000 fans.

Jason and Rich, hosts of the NBA history podcast "Over and Back," preview the San Antonio Spurs' 2023 game in the Alamodome aiming to break the NBA's regular-season attendance record. This episode explores the history of massive crowds at NBA games held in football and multipurpose stadiums. The hosts detail specific record-setting games, starting with the 2010 NBA All-Star Game at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, which drew 108,713 fans. They recount the Detroit Pistons' three highly attended games at the Pontiac Silverdome in the late 1980s, including a 1988 matchup against the Boston Celtics that drew 61,983 people. The Minnesota Timberwolves' inaugural 1989-90 season in the Metrodome is highlighted, where a final home game against the Denver Nuggets pushed their season attendance over one million. The number one most-attended regular-season game remains the 1998 Chicago Bulls vs. Atlanta Hawks matchup at the Georgia Dome, with 62,046 fans present to see Michael Jordan. A surprising insight is that the 1990 expansion Timberwolves and the 1988 Pistons are the only teams to surpass one million in total season attendance. The hosts note the 1996 Chicago Bulls hold the record for highest average attendance per game at 26,638. They reveal the Charlotte Hornets of the mid-1990s own 10 of the top 20 single-game attendance marks, a testament to their cultural peak. The episode clarifies that the Spurs' record attempt is for a regular-season game, as the 2010 All-Star Game holds the overall NBA attendance record. The tone is conversational and nostalgic, filled with friendly banter and tangents into wrestling history and personal anecdotes. Listeners who enjoy deep dives into NBA trivia, historical oddities, and the business side of the sport will love this episode. Those seeking analysis of current games or player performance might want to skip it.

As heard by us

A crowd-count episode that turns arena trivia into the point.

The episode opens with the Spurs' one last visit to the Alamo Dome and uses that detour to frame a bigger look at NBA crowd history. From there it moves to the Timberwolves' Metrodome years, where attendance becomes the story as much as the basketball.

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Why you'd press play

You want NBA attendance freakery wrapped in a Spurs-to-Wolves history detour.

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