Tournament Attendance Nears 1.5 Million
October 5, 2012
The 2011-12 school year marked the fifth straight that attendance at Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason tournaments totaled more than 1.47 million fans – with records set for total attendance at tournaments for six sports.
Total attendance for 2011-12 was 1,479,421 fans, with 1,050,405 at boys tournaments and 429,016 spectators at girls tournaments. Attendance is kept for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis, for which admission typically is not charged.
The previous year, total attendance was 1,522,468 – a five-year high – with 1,090,040 fans at boys tournament events and 432,368 at girls events. The 2011-12 overall attendance figure was the lowest since 2006-07 and represents a 2.8 percent drop from 2010-11, with boys attendance down 3.6 percent but girls attendance down slightly less than one percent.
Twelve sports saw increased tournament attendance last school year from 2010-11: boys soccer (33,399), cross country (19,279) team wrestling (30,415), baseball (47,692), boys lacrosse (7,899), volleyball (99,295), competitive cheer (23,511), girls lacrosse (5,526), girls soccer (26,928) and softball (41,434). Two tournaments at which boys and girls compete simultaneously, bowling (12,346) and track and field (36,904), also saw increases during 2011-12.
Three girls sports set attendance records. Cheer and girls lacrosse each set all-time highs for the eighth consecutive year, with lacrosse’s annual increases dating back to its first year as an MHSAA-sponsored sport in 2005. Volleyball set a high for the fourth straight year despite a slight decrease in District attendance – totals at Regionals, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and the Finals all increased from 2010-11, the Finals total by 27 percent.
The combined bowling tournament also set a record, besting its figure of 12,099 fans in 2009-10, and the track and field tournament set a record for a second straight year, besting the 2010-11 attendance of 36,873. The combined boys and girls cross country tournament bested its 2010-11 record total by nearly 1,000 fans.
Eight more Finals joined volleyball with increases in attendance from 2010-11. Among the most notable, Girls Basketball Finals weekend saw an increase of 9.7 percent, while attendance at Team Wrestling Finals weekend and the Track and Field Finals both were up eight percent from the year before. Finals for cheer, girls soccer, bowling, boys soccer and individual wrestling also saw small increases in 2011-12.
Football again ranked as the most-attended MHSAA tournament, with 427,520 fans. Since playoff expansion occurred in 1999, the football playoffs have been the single most attended tournament series on 10 occasions. Boys basketball was second in 2011-12 attendance with 322,988 fans, and girls basketball was third with 158,481. All three of those sports saw attendance drops from the previous year – football by 4.7 percent, boys basketball by 3.6 percent and girls basketball by five percent. Boys basketball hit a record low for the second straight year. The 2011-12 football attendance, however, was still more than 24,000 fans better than in 2009-10, and girls basketball attendance was roughly 5,000 fans more than in 2008-09.
MHSAA.tv Broadcast Schedule Includes Nearly 200 Week 1 Varsity Football Games
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 22, 2022
Nearly 200 varsity football games scheduled for this opening weekend of the Michigan high school season will be broadcast on MHSAA.tv and the NFHS Network or by Michigan High School Athletic Association partner Bally Sports Detroit – including all 16 games being played at the Xenith Prep Kickoff Classic, Battle at the Big House and Vehicle City Gridiron Classic.
Varsity football teams may kick off the season Thursday (Aug. 25), and BSD and NFHS Network will have broadcasts that first day from all three showcase events. Below are the schedules for all three:
Xenith Prep Kickoff Classic – Wayne State University – Tom Adams Field
Aug. 25, 4 p.m.: Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice vs. Macomb Dakota – Bally Sports Detroit
Aug. 25, 7 p.m.: Sterling Heights Stevenson vs. West Bloomfield – Bally Sports Detroit
Aug. 26, 4 p.m.: Allen Park vs. Wyandotte – NFHS Network
Aug. 26, 7 p.m.: Belleville vs. Novi – NFHS Network
Aug. 27, 1 p.m.: Dexter vs. Grosse Pointe South – NFHS Network
Aug. 27, 4 p.m.: Cedar Springs vs. River Rouge – NFHS Network
Battle at the Big House – University of Michigan – Michigan Stadium
Aug. 25, Noon: Brighton vs. Dearborn Fordson – NFHS Network
Aug. 25, 3:30 p.m.: DeWitt vs. Haslett – NFHS Network
Aug. 25, 7 p.m.: Clarkston vs. Davison – NFHS Network
Aug. 26, Noon: Livonia Churchill vs. Plymouth – NFHS Network
Aug. 26, 3:30 p.m.: Port Huron vs. Grand Rapids Catholic Central – NFHS Network
Aug. 26, 7 p.m.: Lapeer vs. Ann Arbor Huron – NFHS Network
Vehicle City Gridiron Classic – Kettering University – Atwood Stadium
Aug. 25, 4 p.m.: Grand Blanc vs. Grandville – NFHS Network
Aug. 25, 7:30 p.m.: Flint Kearsley vs. Flint Carman-Ainsworth – NFHS Network
Aug. 26, 4 p.m.: Flint Southwestern vs. Swartz Creek – NFHS Network
Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m.: Flint Beecher vs. Saginaw Nouvel – NFHS Network
The other nearly-200 varsity football games will be viewable on the NFHS Network via the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program. Several girls volleyball and boys soccer matches also are on this week’s schedule; see the link’s below for each sport:
Football | Girls Volleyball | Boys Soccer
NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $11.99 per month (or $79.99 annually). Subscribers have access to all live video across the country. School Broadcast Program participants benefit as a portion of every subscription sold by a school goes to benefit its program.
More than 550 MHSAA member schools are participants in the School Broadcast Program, now in its 14th year, producing games using traditional hands-on student crews or via Pixellot cameras installed at stadiums and gymnasiums across the state. A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA Website.
Additionally this season, Bally Sports Detroit will be broadcasting a game every week of the regular season followed on Friday nights by the hour-long highlight show “Football Fridays Overtimes powered by State Champs” – see the schedule below, with games for Weeks 6-9 to be released at a later date.
Aug. 25, 4 p.m.: Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice vs. Macomb Dakota at Wayne State
Aug. 25, 7 p.m.: Sterling Heights Stevenson vs. West Bloomfield at Wayne State
Sept. 2, 7 p.m.: Birmingham Groves at Oxford
Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m.: Clarkston at Rochester Adams
Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m.: Detroit Martin Luther King at Detroit Cass Tech
Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m.: Detroit Catholic Central at Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice