SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

2023 OHSAA State Boys Basketball Tournament Attendance Numbers...Down From 2022
https://statelinesportsnetwork.net/2023 ... -from-2022

Had you just counted the actual fans from the Lutheran East-Harvest Prep game it would have probably been around 200.

When is the OH$AA going to realize no one is going to come and watch these private school all-star teams?? Then throw in Richmond heights which from the sound of it has become a glorified AAU team.

I hope the numbers continue to drop until they finally do something about these teams loading up. Already read on here that the team that beat FF Green in the Regionals, Westerville Northfield Christian already has two kids coming in from big DIV I schools for next year. What have they been in existence, 2-3 years and they are already getting kids coming in.

SMDH!!!!!

I am in agreement with you yabba. However, I don't see the OHSAA doing anything about it. I'm not sure how they do, honestly. Sounds to me like SEO teams need to level the playing field and be more open to transferring / loading up similar to how these schools do.

If OHSAA wants more money at the State Tournament they need small town teams to make it. Lutheran East / Harvest / Richmond Heights are tremendous teams, but horrible for the gate.

Small town teams make the atmosphere so much better. I felt like I was watching a COVID year basketball game between Prep and Lutheran East, pretty much just parents and a small student section. Watching OG, Russia, Centerville, Crestview, and Ready is what makes those state games exciting is when teams are not only playing for their school but for their community. I do believe that helped OG beat Afrocentric was the support of their crowd.

I truly don’t think in D4 well ever see another team from the SE make it past the semifinals as long as they are playing NCAA teams from Columbus and Cincinnati. And how many times does the Cinderella bunch get put out buy the africentrics of the state, only for them to find violations and strip the win away anyway. No repercussions the next season.

Every year same old dead horse BS.

People need to get over the recruiting whining crap,it's not only the big city schools doing it,it's happening in the little hick towns all over Ohio, small town wanna bes will never compete with big city schools,they are simply out numbered, why is it ok for little schools in ghost towns to load up and beat up on schools in their own areas but want to whine about getting their azz kicked when they make it to the big stage and take their beat down?

Wait until Law is passed for a 1 time exemption to transfer to any school. Talk about the Wild West. HS Transfer portal is coming people. Within the next 2-3 years.

Pinwheel wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:46 am Every year same old dead horse BS.

People need to get over the recruiting whining crap,it's not only the big city schools doing it,it's happening in the little hick towns all over Ohio, small town wanna bes will never compete with big city schools,they are simply out numbered, why is it ok for little schools in ghost towns to load up and beat up on schools in their own areas but want to whine about getting their azz kicked when they make it to the big stage and take their beat down?

I agree. I feel as if D4 SE teams should just celebrate getting to the Final Four because it's a very tall task to win the D4 State. Why don't they just add a 5th division in basketball? I mean we added 7 for football, so make sense to add 5 for basketball

For information purposes relating to the initial post, Northside Christian has been around for 40 years. I don’t think they had a winning record for over 20 years though until the stud moved in.

His dad, who coaches the team, does have lots of AAU ties though from what I’ve heard. It’s possible I heard wrong, but I was told that Northside had maybe 1-2 transfers play basketball in the last 10 or so years until this new coach. Last season their starting lineup was comprised of 60% transfers.

HYPOTHETICALLY, let’s say they are recruiting (or other schools that fit the same mold). Who is responsible for calling them out on it? Everything is hearsay or word of mouth unless you’ve got it in writing. I think the school’s administrators need to be the one to research this.

In the case of Northside Christian, doesn’t the AD or principal need to review that? Those transfers showed up after the season started a year ago. So they had practices and even played games, then they get these new AAU players? If there’s no paper trail, unless the administration looks into it I don’t think there is much to be done.

I agree that one or two divisions need to be added like football . Size and transfers is a big issue . Home grown teams have a real uphill battle to compete but when they do it’s special .

Streaming, direct conflict with March Madness, cold weather to travel through, cost of travel/ticket, the general dying off/aging out of the “casual fan”… all of these things are what’s keeping attendance low. Not who plays.

yabbadabbadoo wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:16 am Had you just counted the actual fans from the Lutheran East-Harvest Prep game it would have probably been around 200.

When is the OH$AA going to realize no one is going to come and watch these private school all-star teams?? Then throw in Richmond heights which from the sound of it has become a glorified AAU team.

I hope the numbers continue to drop until they finally do something about these teams loading up. Already read on here that the team that beat FF Green in the Regionals, Westerville Northfield Christian already has two kids coming in from big DIV I schools for next year. What have they been in existence, 2-3 years and they are already getting kids coming in.

SMDH!!!!!

Exactly

The Ghost of Swanker wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:42 am I truly don’t think in D4 well ever see another team from the SE make it past the semifinals as long as they are playing NCAA teams from Columbus and Cincinnati. And how many times does the Cinderella bunch get put out buy the africentrics of the state, only for them to find violations and strip the win away anyway. No repercussions the next season.

I don't see a D3 team making it out of Athens regional either. This year Africentric came out of there. The last few years it was Harvest Prep. If you noticed, this year Harvest prep went to play out of the Kettering regional and africentric came to Athens. The both made it to the Final four. If that's what the OH$AA wants then so be it but they need to stop bitching about the attendance every year. That is what they are going to get every year. Those years of the casual fan going to enjoy a weekend of basketball are over. If I want to go watch all star teams I'll go to AAU games in the summer.

Hoopster98 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:23 am

Pinwheel wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:46 am Every year same old dead horse BS.

People need to get over the recruiting whining crap,it's not only the big city schools doing it,it's happening in the little hick towns all over Ohio, small town wanna bes will never compete with big city schools,they are simply out numbered, why is it ok for little schools in ghost towns to load up and beat up on schools in their own areas but want to whine about getting their azz kicked when they make it to the big stage and take their beat down?

I agree. I feel as if D4 SE teams should just celebrate getting to the Final Four because it's a very tall task to win the D4 State. Why don't they just add a 5th division in basketball? I mean we added 7 for football, so make sense to add 5 for basketball

. And there’s more basketball teams in the State then football !

formerfcfan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:14 am Streaming, direct conflict with March Madness, cold weather to travel through, cost of travel/ticket, the general dying off/aging out of the “casual fan”… all of these things are what’s keeping attendance low. Not who plays.

I do think every single thing you mentioned is attributing to the low attendance.

But who is playing does absolutely have an impact. I used to go every year, and I haven't been for 4-5 years. The main reason was seeing the same old recruiting AAU HS teams win again and again. It just took the joy out for me. I loved watching the small towns fill their sections and be loud and cheer for their kids. Maybe I"m just old school, I don't know. I just enjoyed it. I don't really get that feeling anymore with the Africentrics/Harvests/Richmond Heights/Lutheran East's of the world.... Just wayyyyyyyyyyyyy smaller crowds, way less noise... Just way less excitement in general.

I genuinely don't think the top 5 D4 players in Ohio could get a team together and beat Richmond Heights.... so how could a small town team like Convoy Crestview? I understand they are kids and they get to say they won the state title... but are they really getting better playing these small D4 schools and winning by 40-50? They might have been the best team in the entire state of Ohio, and they had to beat the smallest towns in Ohio to win a state title... is that really the goal of competitive balance?

formerfcfan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:14 am Streaming, direct conflict with March Madness, cold weather to travel through, cost of travel/ticket, the general dying off/aging out of the “casual fan”… all of these things are what’s keeping attendance low. Not who plays.

The late Sunday start killed the D1 finals. It would have been better with Centerville, but only because it was close.

I went to 5 games on Friday and Saturday, but didn’t go to the 8:30 game either night. The times were too spread out for the semis, so you saw a big dip for the late games each night in the random fan. Especially with 4 NCAA games being played in the evening hours.

The cost was high and gas is higher, so that limited how many games I went to and how much money I spent while I was there.

Hoopster98 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:23 am

Pinwheel wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:46 am Every year same old dead horse BS.

People need to get over the recruiting whining crap,it's not only the big city schools doing it,it's happening in the little hick towns all over Ohio, small town wanna bes will never compete with big city schools,they are simply out numbered, why is it ok for little schools in ghost towns to load up and beat up on schools in their own areas but want to whine about getting their azz kicked when they make it to the big stage and take their beat down?

I agree. I feel as if D4 SE teams should just celebrate getting to the Final Four because it's a very tall task to win the D4 State. Why don't they just add a 5th division in basketball? I mean we added 7 for football, so make sense to add 5 for basketball

I actually am surprised there isn't a 5th division for basketball yet.

Football has 7 divisions with 706 schools in OHSAA fielding a team.

Basketball has 4 divisions with 800 schools fielding a team.


Seems like the 5th division is inevitable.

bbjunky81 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 2:48 pm

formerfcfan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:14 am Streaming, direct conflict with March Madness, cold weather to travel through, cost of travel/ticket, the general dying off/aging out of the “casual fan”… all of these things are what’s keeping attendance low. Not who plays.

I do think every single thing you mentioned is attributing to the low attendance.

But who is playing does absolutely have an impact. I used to go every year, and I haven't been for 4-5 years. The main reason was seeing the same old recruiting AAU HS teams win again and again. It just took the joy out for me. I loved watching the small towns fill their sections and be loud and cheer for their kids. Maybe I"m just old school, I don't know. I just enjoyed it. I don't really get that feeling anymore with the Africentrics/Harvests/Richmond Heights/Lutheran East's of the world.... Just wayyyyyyyyyyyyy smaller crowds, way less noise... Just way less excitement in general.

I genuinely don't think the top 5 D4 players in Ohio could get a team together and beat Richmond Heights.... so how could a small town team like Convoy Crestview? I understand they are kids and they get to say they won the state title... but are they really getting better playing these small D4 schools and winning by 40-50? They might have been the best team in the entire state of Ohio, and they had to beat the smallest towns in Ohio to win a state title... is that really the goal of competitive balance?

It would be interesting if OHSAA/the DAB’s had attendance figures (historical/year-by-year and this year) for the upstream stages of the tournament at the District and Regional levels.

I get what you’re saying. IMO what you’re speaking to serves as a deterrent to buying the inflated all-session (entire book of tickets) or even piecemeal buying the individual tickets across the games you want to watch. The split-sessions has ruined some of the value (if you measure the product of entertainment against what you’re paying) in the activity of watching postseason basketball. An example: used to go to the Convo every year as a neutral spectator; went back again this year, but the only day that fit my fancy and wasn’t conflicting with the girls’ side was Regional Finals two Saturdays ago. Middle game (Central vs Orange) was the pick. Great game, but not a big crowd. Just as I made the decision to eschew paying another $26 bucks (b/w two games and the parking) to watch the first and last game, others evidently chose to not watch the middle game.

I just think there’s more to the topic of attendance than ‘who plays.’ Or that ‘who plays’ is exaggerated. After all, it is consumerism — customer preferences, and customer realities, on a product where attendance probably isn’t the tail wagging the dog? Or it’s just not a clearly-established relationship.

I hope the games stay in Dayton. The arena is so much better to watch game in than the Schott. The parking is also a ton better. Driving to eat wasn’t a big deal for us, we found places to eat anytime we wanted to go an eat.

HERO wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 5:47 pm I hope the games stay in Dayton. The arena is so much better to watch game in than the Schott. The parking is also a ton better. Driving to eat wasn’t a big deal for us, we found places to eat anytime we wanted to go an eat.

If they were in Columbus, I might go to a couple games. Living in eastern ohio I’m not driving 3+ hours to watch many blowouts. OSU is too uppity up to want HS basketball on their truf. And they obviously don’t care about men’s basketball. It’s all football for a school that won 2 n a half national championships since 1970. Bring the people back for the boys n girls state championships, where it should be !!!