Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics
Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Jan. 8, 2007 All-Time Records Set For Overall & Boys Tournament Attendance EAST LANSING, Mich. – Jan. 8 – The 2005-06 high school athletic season in Michigan was dubbed “A Celebration of Participation,” a time where a record was set for the third straight year for educational athletic participation -- 313,589 in sports in which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsored a post-season tournament. Spectators also celebrated that participation in record numbers, with a total of 1,680,323 fans attending post-season tournaments in 2005-06; and a new boys tournament mark of was also set with 1,303,720. The girls tournament figure of 376,603 was the third highest of all time. Attendance is kept for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis, where admission is typically not charged. Seven tournaments saw overall attendance records set in 2005-06. Cross country, which had a Finals round attendance record set with 11,066; set a tournament series record with 17,618; and bowling set Regional and Finals (2,703) records in totaling 7,405 fans. Three girls sports – competitive cheer, lacrosse and volleyball – set marks for total attendance. Cheer had a new Regional mark of 7,945 en route to a record tournament total of 13,188. Lacrosse set records at all levels and a new tournament high total of 2,948. Volleyball had new records for District (31,445) and Semifinal (4,033) spectatorship along the way to a three-week total of 56,810 – topping the 2003-04 mark of 51,035. The boys tournament marks came in lacrosse with 7,003 for the entire series, setting Semifinal and Final marks along the way; and soccer, where the record total attendance of 42,917 included marks at the Regional and Final (6,309) levels of play. The Baseball Finals set a new record for that level of its tournament with 8,750 fans; the Regional phase of the Football Playoffs new a new mark of 97,045; and the Girls Soccer Semifinals set a record with 3,901. The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,800 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. -0- RL07-027 AT&T, Farm Bureau Insurance Henry Ford Health Systems and MEEMIC Insurance
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