Wrestlemania 2 Chicago portion

Scott,

The attendance for Wrestlemania 2 in Chicago was a complete flop drawing only around 9,000 people to the arena.

Only a few weeks prior, according to thehistoryofwwe.com, they drew 18,000 for a pretty lackluster house show overall featuring this line up

WWF @ Chicago, IL – Rosemont Horizon – March 15, 1986 (18,000)
Prime Time Wrestling – 3/24/86 – included Jimmy Hart (sub. for Jesse Ventura) conducting an in-ring interview with Mr. T, who was dressed in a kilt, with Mr. T bringing out the Junkyard Dog to stay at ringside, while Hart had Terry & Dory Funk Jr. at ringside with him; Mr. T ended up pushing down Hart after he said Piper would knock him out within 10 seconds at WrestleMania 2
Ted Arcidi defeated Tiger Chung Lee
Nikolai Volkoff defeated George Wells
Cpl. Kirchner defeated the Iron Sheik
Davey Boy Smith & the Dynamite Kid defeated Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart when Dynamite pinned Bret
Dory Funk Jr. defeated SD Jones
The Junkyard Dog defeated Terry Funk via disqualification
Adrian Adonis pinned George Steele
Tito Santana defeated WWF IC Champion Randy Savage via disqualification
King Kong Bundy pinned Hillbilly Jim

How did WWF manage to get only half of the arena filled for Mania with several months of promotion yet, hyping it as the "greatest event of all time" yet fill it up for a house show with mostly ho hum matches just several weeks prior?

The Chicago portion promised the blow off to the Bulldogs- Dream Team feud and the 20 man NFL vs WWF battle royal.

Was it that fans may have been weary of getting only 4 matches live and relying on the giant screens for the remainder of the show?

​Yeah, that Wrestlemania was a disaster on a lot of levels. I think that it was on the wrong day, and at a weird time due to the simulcast thing, and as noted the live show in Chicago was only 45 minutes long or whatever it was. It’s just a concept that failed completely, even in a hot wrestling city like Chicago. ​