Attendance Issues(State Tournaments)

[FANOSPORTS]

http://blog.cleveland.com/hs/2009/06/attendance.pdf


They can say what they want about the media, etc. I think with the proliferation of transfers, new "christian schools", etc. the overall public attitude (especially the casual fans of the old guard, such as me) is that, OHSAA is making a killing so they're not getting my money with all the events at the high school championship level being overpriced, leveraged and politicized nowadays anyway. (JMO)

Note: Attendance at the 7 largest tournaments is down over 30% in the last 4 years. That ought to tell them something.

[bman]

The economy and championship games on live tv for major sports are probably the primary reasons. Also, smaller towns traditionally travel more than the private schools in smaller divisions.

At the D2 regional semifinal, Logan Elm had 2,000 people in the Convo and DeSales might have had 200-300.

[TribeManiac10]

It is that way because all of the schools with large followings are getting beat out by those inner city aau squads who have a hard time bringing triple digit crowds.

[trojandave]

I went to all the Thursday and Friday games, and the attendance for every game except the last game Friday.......Gahanna vs. Massillon Jackson........was under 12,000.......in fact there was one game.........Dayton Jefferson vs. Bedford Chanel.......that the attendance was not announced........it was the smallest crowd of the 8 games, probably in the neighborhood of only 9,000........Jefferson and Chanel had by far the smallest crowds.......the student sections were only filled for a couple of rows.

I will continue to go every year like I have for the last 21 of 22 state tournaments, and it doesn't matter to me who plays, whether they're public or private, or whether they're city or rural.........the basketball tournaments are a cash cow for the OHSAA, and now they have a nice television contract with STO.........

Attendance seems to be going down over the years, though........but there will always be fans like me who will go because we love going to the biggest event of the year in high school basketball.

[bettis36]

At the finals the attendance at the D3 game was 14,008. D2 was 13,688, D4 10,700. i went home before the D1 game so i am not sure of the attendance for it.

[pembrook burrows III]

With almost 13,000 in attendance for the D-I game, it along with the D-II and D-III games would have been virtual sellouts at St. John Arena. Fact is you don't need over 19,000 seats for a high school tournament unless you got LeBron or OJ.