Week 16 at Soldier Field featured a 4-win Chicago Bears team against a winless Cleveland Browns team.
Factor in a cold, snowy day in Chicago on Christmas Eve and there were bound to be a lot of empty seats at the stadium.
Late in the game on Sunday the Bears announced an attendance of 41,257 fans with 17,539 tickets going unused. By comparison, a year ago when the Bears took on the Washington Redskins on Christmas Eve at Soldier Field the attendance was slightly lower with 39,837 fans in attendance.
Attendance has been an issue all season long for the Bears as they are mired in another losing season with head coach John Fox at the helm. Sunday's win helped the Bears improve to 5-10 on the season, but the team has not had a winning season since going 10-6 under Lovie Smith in 2012. The Bears went 8-8 in 2013 before going 5-11, 6-10 and 3-13 before this season.
In Chicago's last home game in Week 13 they had 8,489 tickets go unused when the team took on the San Francisco 49ers at Soldier Field.
That Sunday the fans got to see the Bears lose to the San Francisco 49ers for their ninth loss of the year. Former Bear Robbie Gould kicked the game-winner against Chicago.
In total the team distributed 61,302 tickets and had an actual attendance of 52,813 in Week 13. In Week 11 against the Detroit Lions Chicago had a total of 10,145 tickets go unused. In Week 10 against the Green Bay Packers the team saw 5,624 tickets go unused.
The Bears will close out the 2017 season on New Year's Eve in Minnesota when they take on the Vikings in Week 17.