Chicago is a Bulls Town on Facebook

CHICAGO, IL - It’s a trend to like the Blackhawks. You’re either a supporter of the White Sox or Cubs. And Chicago will always be a “Bears Town.”

So naturally, the local professional sports team with the most Facebook likes is the….Bulls?

That’s right. And it’s actually not even close.

Data accumulated this week by the Chicago Sun-Times shows the Bulls have more than 18 million fans on Facebook. The Bears are second in town with with a number in the 4 million range.

Sure our hardwood heroes have given us more championships over the last 30 years than any of the city’s other pro teams and boasted the most popular player in the sport’s history for 15 years. But this surely comes as a surprise.

Perhaps even more surprising, the Bulls have the second highest number of likes compared to any other U.S. sports team, only trailing the Los Angeles Lakers who have 21 million. Other popular franchises like the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees and Boston Celtics are only in the 8 million range.

In Chicago, despite three championships in the last six years, the Blackhawks are stuck in the 2.8 million range and the Cubs (2.6 million) and White Sox (1.6 million) appear to have split the vote in the city’s baseball category.

But in the world, soccer (football everywhere else) is still king. You can combine the Bulls and Lakers totals and still pale in comparison to how many like FC Barcelona (89 million) or Real Madrid CF (85 million).

Chicago’s soccer team, the Chicago Fire, have considerably less with 244,000.