MHSAA 2025-26 Attendance Figures Show Increases in 10 Sports, Nearly Offsetting Early Deficit
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 25, 2026
Increased attendance in 10 sports nearly made up for a likely Halloween-driven deficit during the first week of last season’s football playoffs as Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason tournament attendance approached 1.4 million spectators again for the 2025-26 school year.
Total, MHSAA Tournament events drew 1,381,218 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 was a decrease of 16,356 tickets sold across all sports (1.2 percent) from 2024-25 – but notable increases in other sports helped make up for a year-to-year decrease of 37,617 tickets (29 percent) for the District Semifinal round of the MHSAA 11-Player Football Playoffs, which along with 8-Player Regional Semifinals coincided with Halloween in 2025.
The Boys Lacrosse Tournament saw record attendance during its Semifinals and overall with 18,067 tickets sold across all rounds – that total representing an 18-percent increase from the previous season. Girls Volleyball Tournament attendance approached its overall record, with 118,332 tickets sold an increase of 6.7 percent from the 2025 postseason and just 99 tickets shy of tying the record set during the 2019 season. Girls volleyball did set records at the District (78,307) and Regional (26,793) levels.
Girls attendance as a whole rebounded in 2025-26, up to 460,730 tickets sold, an increase of 1.6 percent over the previous year. Girls basketball (146,322), competitive cheer (29,491), lacrosse (5,573) and individual wrestling (5,539) all joined volleyball as showing attendance jumps. Overall attendance for cross country (girls and boys combined) also saw an increase (17,778), as did boys basketball (262,338), boys swimming & diving (5,831) and individual wrestling (47,903). The Individual Wrestling Finals, specifically, enjoyed their largest audience since 2016-17.
Football did receive good news, despite the lower attendance that first week and also slightly lower attendance year-to-year for the 11-Player District Finals. The Regional rounds of the playoffs, 11 and 8-player combined, saw their highest attendance (68,469) since the 2012 season, and despite 8-Player Regional Semifinals coinciding with Halloween. The Semifinals attendance (33,085) saw their highest attendance also since 2012, and Finals attendance (44,708) was its highest since 2019.
The MHSAA also sponsored postseasons for the first time for field hockey and boys volleyball, adding overall ticket sales of 2,084 and 8,158, respectively.
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.
Use of Participation Fees Rises Slightly
August 20, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Nearly 57 percent of Michigan High School Athletic Association high schools assessed participation fees to help fund interscholastic athletics in 2013-14, according to the most recent survey taken by the MHSAA – indicating a slight increase in use of fees compared to the previous school year.
Of 405 high schools that responded to the 2013-14 survey, 229 – or 56.6 percent – charged fees last school year compared to 55.3 percent of member schools that charged in 2012-13. The percentage of member schools charging fees crossed 50 percent in 2010-11 and remained at 50.5 percent in 2011-12 before making a nearly five-percent jump two school years ago.
There were 758 senior high schools in the MHSAA membership in 2013-14 – the most recent survey generated a response rate of 53 percent. This was the 10th survey of schools since the 2003-04 school year, when members reported fees were being charged in 24 percent of schools.
The largest surge of charging fees in 2013-14 came at Class A schools, with 77 percent reporting fees after 71 percent reported using them in 2012-13. Class B schools saw a one percent increase to 62 percent with fees, and Class D schools saw a two percent increase to 39 percent. Class C schools, however, saw a four percent drop to 46 percent assessing for participation.
Charging a standardized per-team fee for each on which a student participates remains the most popular method among schools that assess fees, with 41 percent of schools that assess doing so in this way. The median fee among those schools was $85 in 2013-14, an increase of $20 from the previous year.
Building on a trend that emerged during the 2011-12 survey, the use of fees incurred by students who paid once for an entire year of participation increased for the third consecutive school year, this time to 33 percent of schools that charge – although, on a positive note, the median fee for students paying once for a school year dropped $25 from 2012-13 to $100 in 2013-14.
The survey for 2013-14 and surveys from previous years can be found on the MHSAA Website.
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.