MHSAA Tournament Attendance Reaches 6-Year High, Topping 1.4 Million Spectators in 2022-23
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 8, 2023
The Michigan High School Athletic Association welcomed its highest spectator turnout in six years in 2022-23, as a total of 1,457,813 fans attended postseason competitions for which admission is charged – an increase of nearly 10 percent over the previous school year and the highest count since 2016-17.
The MHSAA annually tracks attendance for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis, as single tickets are not sold for those sports. The 2022-23 attendance totals included 1,008,070 spectators for boys and 449,743 for girls tournament events – and those totals also were six-year highs.
Three MHSAA Tournaments set records for total series attendance. Softball welcomed 47,696 fans, breaking the previous record set in 2016-17. Baseball counted 63,844 fans – including records at the District and Regional level – bettering the previous record set just a season before. Girls and boys bowling, with their tournaments conducted concurrently, counted 16,482 fans, breaking the record set in 2019-20 and with an all-time high for the Regional level.
Among other single-round record-setters, Individual Wrestling Regionals counted 10,782 spectators, the most for that level of that tournament since 2001-02. The Ice Hockey Semifinals & Finals drew 15,204 fans, besting the previous high from 2013-14. Girls Competitive Cheer Districts drew 13,374 spectators, their most since 2015-16, and Boys Lacrosse Regionals drew 2,586, besting that round’s record set the year prior.
Football remains the most-attended MHSAA Tournament sport and drew 381,396 spectators, the highest total since 2016-17 and an increase of 28 percent over 2021-22 Boys basketball attendance was next highest with 292,213 fans, an increase of five percent from 2021-22, and girls basketball ranked third and first among girls sports with 144,872 spectators – an increase of 2.4 percent from the previous season. Volleyball, the fourth highest-attended tournament series, missed its 2021-22 total by only 20 spectators, drawing 113,552.
Several more MHSAA Tournaments enjoyed attendance increases in 2022-23 over the previous year. Both individual and team wrestling series continued upward trends – the Individual Wrestling Tournament drew 44,767, its most since 2016-17 and an increase of 6.8 percent over 2021-22; and the Team Wrestling Tournament counted 37,018 spectators, its highest since the record turnout of 1999-2000 and an increase of 14.2 percent over the previous year. Track & field, with girls and boys meets conducted simultaneously, missed its record attendance of 2020-21 by just 41 spectators, improving five percent from 2021-22 with a total of 39,694.
Five more sports also enjoyed impressive overall attendance increases. Competitive cheer attendance was up 21 percent to 26,195 fans, and overall ice hockey attendance was up 19 percent to 56,168. Boys lacrosse was up 8.2 percent to 17,040, and girls lacrosse attendance rose 7.3 percent to 5,290 fans. Girls gymnastics was up 2.3 percent to 2,081 spectators.
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.
Multi-Sport Participation Holds Steady in 2023-24, Continuing Increases Found Over Entirety of Study
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 16, 2025
The MHSAA’s sixth Multi-Sport Participation Survey, conducted last spring for the 2023-24 school year, showed for the third-consecutive year that nearly 45 percent of athletes at member high schools participated in more than one sport, while the entirety of the study continues to show that percentages of multi-sport athletes for all four Classes (A-B-C-D) have grown during the six years this topic has been studied in this way.
Early and intense sport specialization has become one of the most serious issues related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports, as overuse injuries and burnout among athletes have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life. In early 2016, the MHSAA appointed a Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation as part of a continued effort to promote and protect participant health and address the issues leading to early sport specialization. The annual Multi-Sport Participation Survey was among results of the task force’s work.
The 2023-24 Multi-Sport Participation Survey received responses from 63.7 percent of member high schools and showed 44.8 percent of athletes at those MHSAA member high schools participating in two or more sports, a tenth of a percent increase from survey results in 2022-23 and half a percent increase from two years prior.
For 2023-24, 47.6 percent of male athletes and 41.4 percent of female athletes played multiple sports. Class D has enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes over all six years of surveys, this time at 63.1 percent, followed by Class C (59.4), Class B (48.0) and Class A (38.2).
Over the six years of this survey, data also has shown slight increases in multi-sport participation in all four classes. Class A has risen from 35.9 percent in 2017-18 to 38.2 in 2023-24. Class B has risen from 46.7 to 48.0, Class C from 55.2 to 59.4 and Class D from 58.1 to 63.1 over those six years.
The MHSAA Task Force also recommended measuring multi-sport participation in MHSAA member schools to recognize “achievers” – that is, schools that surpass the norm given their enrollment and other factors that affect school sports participation.
Battle Creek Harper Creek, Detroit Cody and Grand Rapids Northview have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes five of the six years the survey has been conducted. Five more schools have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes four of the six years: Decatur, East Grand Rapids, Manton, Parma Western and Warren Michigan Collegiate.
In Class A, Macomb L’Anse Creuse North (94.7 percent) and Battle Creek Harper Creek (72.4) posted the highest percentages of multi-sport athletes for 2023-24, with Grand Rapids Northview (68.1), Berkley (65.0) and Kalamazoo Loy Norrix (64.3) also reporting reaching at least 60 percent. In Class B, four schools reached at least 65 percent multi-sport participation – Parma Western (78.0), Constantine (75.4), Clare (65.7) and Reed City (65.4).
Class C saw six schools reach 80 percent this past school year – Warren Michigan Collegiate (91.7 percent), Flint Beecher (91.3), LeRoy Pine River (89.5), Cass City (84.3), Decatur (83.3) and Manton (81.4). Four Class D schools responded at higher than 90 percent multi-sport participation – Gaylord St. Mary (92.9), Lake Leelanau St. Mary (91.7), Wyoming West Michigan Lutheran (90.9) and Deckerville (90.7) – followed by Marcellus Howardsville Christian (88.9), Morrice (86.8), Ewen-Trout Creek (85.7), Vestaburg (85.5) and Alanson (85.0).
Click for the full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey.