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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-Nov. 4, 2002
Contact: John Johnson or Randy Allen
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Nov. 5 - Attendance at Michigan High School Athletic Association post-season tournament events remained strong during the 2001-02 school year, with new records set in overall spectatorship in Competitive Cheer and Ice Hockey.

The overall attendance figure of 1,578,557 was the third highest ever to the 1999-00 record total of 1,668,905 fans. The boys attendance mark of 1,214,542 ranked third all-time, as did the girls figure of 364,015.

The girls competitive cheer tournament series drew 10,390, topping the old record of 9,522 the previous year; and the Regionals attendance for that tournament of 7,125 far exceeded the previous record of 5,889 fans in 1999-2000.

For the third consecutive year, ice hockey, in its three-division format, has set new attendance marks. This past year's tournament set marks at the Regional (40,201), Quarterfinal (8,808) and overall (59,039). The old overall record was 54,966 a year ago.

The Boys Soccer Finals set a new attendance record last year with 5,950 fans, topping the old mark of 5,564 in 1998-99; and the Girls Volleyball Semifinals set a new mark with 4,031, passing the old mark of 3,954 in the first year of the 16-team, two-day tournament format.

Also of note was Baseball recording its third highest series attendance ever with 45,056; Boys Basketball attracting 93,508 fans for the Final round (quarterfinal-semifinal-final) of that tournament, its highest since the 1998 event; Team Dual Wrestling drawing its second highest spectator total ever for the series with 365,490; Girls Gymnastics having its second highest series number of 2,472; Softball notching its third highest total (41,430) and District (23,939) attendance figures; and Girls Volleyball drawing its second highest Finals crowd ever of 3,868.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,300 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 approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.