Bowling, Boys Lacrosse Set Fan Records
October 10, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Bowling and boys lacrosse tournament events again drew record-breaking attendance totals during the 2018-19 school year as a total of 1,385,710 fans attended MHSAA postseason competitions for which attendance is recorded.
The MHSAA Bowling Tournament – including Regionals and Finals for girls and boys – set an attendance record for the eighth consecutive season last winter with 14,507 fans, including a record 10,124 for Regional competition. Boys lacrosse, which also begins postseason play at the Regional level, set a record for the third straight season this spring with 13,854 fans – with records also at the Regional level of 8,894 fans and Quarterfinal round with 1,911.
The MHSAA annually tracks attendance for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis – for which admission typically is not charged.
The 2018-19 grand total saw a decrease of just less than a half percent from 2017-18. While boys tournament event attendance was down 1.1 percent, or nearly 11,000 fans, girls tournament event attendance saw a 1.3-percent increase to 448,735, nearly 6,000 more fans than the year before.
A total of 17 sports saw increases in attendance for at least one round of tournament play. Three girls sports – basketball, competitive cheer and soccer – plus baseball saw increases in attendance for three rounds of the postseason. Girls volleyball, softball, boys basketball, football, ice hockey and both the team and individual wrestling tournaments saw attendance rise for at least two rounds of play compared to 2017-18.
Seven sports saw overall attendance increases from 2017-18. Girls Basketball, thanks in part to its best Regional attendance since 2001-02, was up 3.5 percent for the entire tournament with 164,166 fans. Cheer, with 27,697 fans for its postseason, was up 6.4 percent. Girls Soccer, with 27,689 fans, was up 1.5 percent for its entire playoffs.
Baseball saw overall postseason attendance increase 5.4 percent to 47,116 fans, and team wrestling was up 5.0 percent with 30,626 fans – including its highest total (15,089) for District competition since 2011-12. Girls and boys cross country – run together on the same days at the same sites – continued its recent surge with more than 19,000 total fans for the third straight season, its total of 19,799 last fall an increase of 1.1 percent from the previous year.
Despite a slight decrease in overall playoff attendance of 1.2 percent, football again drew the most fans of any MHSAA postseason with 348,585. That total was highlighted by a 12.7-percent increase at the Pre-District level for the 11-player tournament and a 22.8-percent jump for the Semifinal round, with 11 and 8-player games counted together. The Semifinals drew their most fans since 2014-15.
Boys basketball was the next most attended sport with 310,696 fans at postseason games, a decrease of just a quarter of a percent from 2017-18. The boys basketball attendance was highlighted by its best Regional turnout in four years and its best Quarterfinal attendance since 2012-13.
Basketball was the most attended girls sport for postseason play, with volleyball (105,128) also reaching six figures for the sixth straight year. Volleyball enjoyed its highest Regional and Quarterfinal attendance both since 2015-16.
Baseball's Record-Setting Spectatorship Headlines MHSAA's 2024-25 Attendance Report
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 12, 2025
An overall attendance record in baseball and several more all-time bests for specific rounds of other sports’ postseason tournaments kept attendance at Michigan High School Athletic Association events near 1.4 million spectators for the third-straight school year in 2024-25.
Total, MHSAA Tournament events drew 1,397,574 spectators at competitions for which admission is charged – which counts all MHSAA-sponsored sports except golf, skiing and tennis, as single tickets are not sold for those postseason events. The total of just under 1.4 million spectators is a decrease of 3.6 percent from 2023-24, but still the third-highest overall attendance over the last eight school years.
Attendance at girls events for 2024-25 was 453,320 fans, a 3.9-percent decrease from the 2023-24 record-setting total but the second-highest over the last eight years.
The boys attendance of 944,254 was 3.4 percent fewer than the previous year. However, baseball set an overall tournament record with 65,150 spectators, with records as well of 38,086 at the District level and 7,517 attending Quarterfinals. Every round of the baseball postseason saw an increase from the previous year.
Overall attendance totals for the ice hockey, team wrestling, gymnastics, boys soccer and girls swimming & diving postseason tournaments also were up from 2023-24. Ice hockey set records at its Semifinals (7,758 spectators) and Finals (7,857), boys soccer at the District level (18,219) and team wrestling also at its Finals (11,604).
Football remains the most-attended MHSAA Tournament sport and drew 361,139 spectators for its playoff series – a decrease of just above a half-percent from the previous year but with the highest Finals turnout (44,535) since 2019-20. Boys basketball attendance remained second across all seasons at 251,668 spectators, followed by girls basketball at 145,313 and girls volleyball at 110,927.
Track & field (41,418 spectators) and softball (47,763) posted their second-highest attendances on record after setting records during the 2023-24 school year.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.