Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics
Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Jan. 10, 2009 Attendance Records Set Again In Two Fall Tournaments EAST LANSING, Mich. –Jan. 10 – For the second straight year, girls volleyball enjoyed overall record-setting attendance for the Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason tournament during the fall of the 2008-09 school year, but that spike was again offset by its second lowest attendance ever for the event’s Semifinal and Final rounds. Because of the MHSAA’s work to reformat the tournament schedule by having schools play only one match per day, attendance at the District level increased by 39 percent over the previous high set in the fall of 2007 with 54,349 fans; and the Regional round increased by 31 percent to 17,766 in topping last year’s record. The Quarterfinals of the tournament saw an increase of 25 percent over 2007 with 7,463. Those numbers combined – 79,578 – were also up 36 percent from the record total of 50,948 during the 2007-08 school year. Only the 2007 Fall totals of 6,070 for the Volleyball Semifinals and Finals was lower than the 6,388 figure for the same 2008 matches since the Association began compiling figures during the 1990-91 school year. Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals also set a new attendance record this year of 5,009, topping the 5,004 mark set in 2007-08. Football saw its highest attendance for the Finals of its playoffs since the eight division format was adopted in 1999 – 66,160. That figure also topped all but two of the preceding nine years of the eight class tournament. Semifinal attendance was the fourth highest ever at 39,575. Overall Football Playoff attendance, though, was down seven percent from 2007 at 448,642. Boys soccer saw an attendance increase at the District level of play over 2007 at 15,337; but the overall tournament number of 35,777 was down eight percent over last year. Overall attendance for the Fall of the 2008-09 school year was down three percent over previous campaign – with 591,890 this year, compared to 610,236 in 2007-08. The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,600 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- Farm Bureau Insurance and MEEMIC Insurance are year-round MHSAA Corporate Partners |