Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics
Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Feb. 1, 2008 Girls Volleyball Tournament Attendance Sets Record in First Fall Season EAST LANSING, Mich. – Feb. 1 – The first season of fall girls volleyball resulted in overall record-setting attendance for the Michigan High School Athletic Association post-season tournament during the 2007-08 school year, but also its lowest attendance ever for the event’s Semifinal and Final rounds. Attendance highs were set at the District level of play with 33,121 fans; the Regional round with 12,194; and the Quarterfinals with 5,633. The previous highs for those rounds were 31,445 in 2005-06 Districts; 11,520 in 2003-04 Regionals; and 5,606 in 2002-03 Quarterfinals. Those numbers combined were also up 16 percent from the 2006-07 school year. The MHSAA Girls Volleyball Semifinals and Finals, which took place to positive reviews at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek Nov. 15-17, drew 31 percent fewer spectators than the 2007 winter tournament which was conducted at University Arena in Kalamazoo. The fall tournament total of 6,070 was the lowest for the Semifinals and Finals since the Association began compiling figures during the 1990-91 school year. With the addition of a third division of competition, the Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals set a new attendance record this year of 5,004. Football and boys soccer attendance bounced back from weather-affected counts in 2006. The District rounds of the MHSAA Football Playoffs drew 309,408 fans, the third highest total since the eight-division format began in 1999; and the number was a 37 percent increase over the format low of 225,886 the previous season. Regional spectatorship was the fourth highest ever at 80,102; and a 31 percent jump over the eight-division format low of 61,079 in 2006. Total attendance for the gridiron playoffs was 481,234, an increase of 28 percent over the previous year’s eight-division format low of 375,646, and was fourth overall. Boys soccer attendance was the fourth highest ever at 38,934 for the entire tournament, an increase of 36 percent over 2006; highlighted by a 62 percent increase over the previous year at the Regional level of play. Overall attendance for the same sports conducted this past fall over the 2006-07 school year was up 25 percent from 489,714 to 610,236. The record overall attendance for the same group of sports since the eight-division format of the Football Playoffs began is 693,290 in 2005-06. 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- AT&T, Farm Bureau Insurance, Henry Ford Health System and MEEMIC Insurance |