Tournament Attendance Tops 1.4 Million
September 17, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The 2012-13 school year marked the sixth straight that attendance at Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason tournaments totaled more than 1.43 million fans, with attendance at girls tournaments topping 430,000 for the fourth straight year.
Total attendance for 2012-13 was 1,433,356 fans, with 1,002,663 at boys tournaments and 430,693 spectators at girls tournaments. Attendance is kept for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis, for which admission typically is not charged.
Girls tournament attendance first topped 400,000 for a school year in 2008-09, then rose over 430,000 for the first time the following year. Helping fuel the total in 2012-13 was a record crowd of 25,290 for competitive cheer (District, Regional and Final rounds combined), and also a record attendance of 12,508 for the girls and boys bowling tournament.
Total attendance did dip slightly in 2012-13, down from 1,479,152 the year before, a drop of 3.1 percent and the lowest since 2006-07. However, four sports joined cheer and bowling with attendance increases from 2011-12 – girls basketball up 4.8 percent to 166,153 fans, gymnastics up 16.8 percent to 2,290, team wrestling up 1.2 percent to 28,863 and ice hockey up 6.5 percent with 59,037 fans this past season.
Football again was the most attended tournament for the sixth consecutive year with 397,944 fans in 2012 – although that represented a 7.3 percent drop from the 2011 playoffs. However, the Regional (5.6 percent) and Semifinal (6.3) rounds both saw increases in fans from the previous season.
Similarly, boys basketball again was second in attendance with 318,325 fans, despite a 1.4 percent decrease from 2011-12. However, the District, Regional and Quarterfinal rounds showed a combined increase of 2.4 percent over the previous season. Girls basketball attendance increased in every round from 2011-12 for an overall increase of 4.8 percent. The Finals weekend total, including semifinals and championship games for each class, was 19,003, the highest since 1992-93.
Girls lacrosse total attendance dropped 9.7 percent to 5,009 fans, but still totaled its second most as an MHSAA sport and set records for Semifinals (1,027) and Finals (1,171) attendance. Volleyball attendance (96,151) remained above 96,000 fans for the fourth consecutive year despite falling 3.2 percent from its 2011-12 record high. Girls soccer dropped less than half a percent from 2011-12 to 26,836 fans, but set a Regional round record with 10,574.
Record Girls Tournament Attendance Drives MHSAA Spectatorship Past 1.4 Million Again
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 18, 2024
A record number of spectators at girls postseason events pushed Michigan High School Athletic Association attendance during the 2023-24 school year past 1.4 million fans for the second straight, with the total of 471,651 spectators for girls competitions breaking the previous all-time best set in 2014-15.
Total, MHSAA tournament events drew 1,449,574 spectators at competitions for which admission is charged – just over a half-percent decrease from 2022-23 but still the second highest overall postseason attendance over the last seven years. Attendance at MHSAA boys tournament events during 2023-24 was 1,008,070, a three-percent decrease from the year before. The MHSAA annually tracks attendance for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis, as single tickets are not sold for those sports.
Record spectator turnout for the Softball and Track & Field Tournaments drove the girls overall increase. Softball set an overall tournament record with 49,636 fans, besting the previous record set just the year before by nearly 2,000, and also set an individual-round record with 4,935 fans at Quarterfinals. Track & Field – with girls and boys competing together – drew a record 42,899 spectators overall, and a Regional record of 25,661. Both track totals bested previous records set during the 2020-21 school year.
Several more sports saw attendance increases during 2023-24. Girls basketball overall postseason attendance was up significantly and for the third-straight year, this time to 158,126 fans for a nine-percent increase from 2022-23. The Individual Wrestling Tournament drew 48,237 fans, an eight-percent increase from the previous season, and set records at the District (13,308) and Regional (11,089) levels. Overall attendance for competitive cheer (29,297, up 12 percent), girls lacrosse (5,627, up six percent), boys lacrosse (17,107, up less than one percent) and boys swimming & diving (6,116, up 33 percent) all were up as well from 2022-23.
Competitive cheer’s increase was keyed in part by record attendance at the District level (14,528). Baseball Districts (36,553), Boys Lacrosse Quarterfinals (3,021) and Girls Diving Regionals (879) also set records.
Football remains the most-attended MHSAA Tournament sport and drew 363,563 spectators for its playoff series – a decrease of nearly five percent from the previous year but including the highest attendance during the Semifinal rounds (32,596) since 2012-13. Boys basketball attendance again ranked second at 280,800 fans, down four percent from the previous year but with increases for the Regional and Quarterfinal rounds. Girls basketball remained third for overall attendance and first among girls sports, followed again by volleyball – which drew 113,239 fans, only 313 fewer than the year before as postseason attendance in that sport has seen less than a percentage point change year to year over the last three seasons.
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.