SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

thebarlowbandit wrote: ↑Sun Feb 24, 2019 11:40 am

9.5 INCHES wrote: ↑Sat Feb 23, 2019 9:58 pm I have not seen where there will be any TV coverage of the state tournament this year. Spectrum Sports did away with their sports channel late last year. If so I would suspect there will be a big attendance boost.

Oh boy, that will set this board on flames!!!!! People can give all the reasons they want for declining attendance, but TV is the biggest factor! Why go to the game when you can watch at home for free?

I can honestly say I have never watched one single state tournament game on TV

If I'm in my recliner and it's between Berlin Highland vs St. Henry or Duke vs Michigan in the final 8 ... I'm probably watching March Madness.

But ,,, You're right, T.V. is a huge factor. For me, it's football. Why go to Canton and freeze my a** off when I can just watch it.

FANOSPORTS wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 3:06 pm

danicalifornia wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 2:15 pm Per usual, I will be in attendance. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year and I’d only miss it if tickets became hundreds of dollars.

It was mine also for around 30 years, not so much anymore. (Me and a few of my long time friends and acquaintances are in that 40-50% attendance drop club they speak of in the article).

Count me in that drop club too.

E High wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2019 12:10 am Lol. High sports attendance may never be what it used to be. State tournament week is into way too many other sports. Parents/kids and coaches just don’t go much anymore more for many different reasons. Still a great show !

Agreed. The NCAA tourney is bringing in more money than ever now on that same weekend and starting with TV agreements between OHSAA and ONN years ago then STO and now Spectrum dropping their high school coverage sports channel, the horse has left the barn and isn't coming back. No TV coverage will not bring fans back to the Schott or Canton. Most will just regress to using the old standby radio coverage (albeit streaming nowadays) which has been around for 100+ years now.

While I appreciate OHSAA attempting to take advantage of technology, I just can't bring myself to pay a 25% processing fee (ticket $6 + $1.52 processing fee).

State tournament should stay at the Schott...these games are about the kids and the teams who make it to the final 4 and I'd say they want to play on the floor and in the building where the Buckeyes play...they aren't thinking about the atmosphere of St Johns or anywhere else.

The Schott atmosphere stinks. Great venue but high school kids would quickly love St. Johns

Raiderball wrote: ↑Tue Feb 26, 2019 11:21 pm

FANOSPORTS wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 3:06 pm

danicalifornia wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 2:15 pm Per usual, I will be in attendance. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year and I’d only miss it if tickets became hundreds of dollars.

It was mine also for around 30 years, not so much anymore. (Me and a few of my long time friends and acquaintances are in that 40-50% attendance drop club they speak of in the article).

Count me in that drop club too.

I am joining that club as well.......getting too old for all that driving....

Flyers58 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2019 1:47 am

Raiderball wrote: ↑Tue Feb 26, 2019 11:21 pm

FANOSPORTS wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 3:06 pm

It was mine also for around 30 years, not so much anymore. (Me and a few of my long time friends and acquaintances are in that 40-50% attendance drop club they speak of in the article).

Count me in that drop club too.

I am joining that club as well.......getting too old for all that driving....

It was a good ride for me over the years. I started following the state tourney with the Columbus East teams in late 60's when Bo Lamar (Southwestern Louisiana), Nick Connor (Illinois) and Ed Ratleff (Long Beach State) played ......


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 2v6I8AGxXs


and continued (except during my military time in mid to late 70's) up through and a little past the LeBron and then O.J. Mayo, Bill Walker years at Cincinnati North College Hill. Saw a lot of great SEO teams in tourney, Racine Southern, Ross Southeastern, Ironton, Wheelersburg , Belpre, Waverly, Chillicothe , South Webster, Reedsville Eastern, Oak Hill and Portsmouth. Off the top of my head at the Convo in district and regionals a few teams stand out other than the one's listed above. Columbus Walnut Ridge, Logan Elm, Geenfield McClain, Chesapeake, Gallipolis , Buckeye Trail and Ft. Frye were some of my favorites and this doesn't include the teams from true SWO mainly West of Rt 23 and the teams of true NEO that played down there with a few of these teams winning State such as Berlin Hiland , Strasburg and Indian Valley South and others Garaway, Carrollton, Dover, New Philadelphia, Lynchburg Clay, Peebles, White Oak and North Adams to name a few. Anyway, It's almost " Basketball :30" time at the Convo and good luck to all teams !!

The girls last week drew a whopping grand total of 36,298 fannies in the seats for 12 games, an average of 3,025 per game with the DI, 2 and 3 Champs having the fewest fans. The boys this weekend will more than double that plus some but not by much. What would be a good over / under line this year for boys attendance ? I'd say 98,000 or so which would be the first time attendance has been below 100,000 in decades.

FANOSPORTS wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:43 am The girls last week drew a whopping grand total of 36,298 fannies in the seats for 12 games, an average of 3,025 per game with the DI, 2 and 3 Champs having the fewest fans. The boys this weekend will more than double that plus some but not by much. What would be a good over / under line this year for boys attendance ? I'd say 98,000 or so which would be the first time attendance has been below 100,000 in decades.

I brought back last years State Tournament thread for the attendance stats on the last page

Lot of schools don’t pay for tickets and rooms for coaches. So they don’t go. Very few games most people want to see. NCAA full bore. AAU full bore. Some TV a factor and finally Ohio major sports are very average

Maybe we should just do away with the tournament all together, no one wants to attend anymore, maybe go AAU model, charge entry fees and for hotel rooms, we can get rid of silly regulations and allow for kids to be free. Much more exciting and honest.

Lol. Really ? That’s part of the problem. AAU has become more important to some instead of the State tournament. Really sad !

Anyone there this weekend?

How has the attendance been so far?

The Division III attendance was announced as a little less than 6500. The Division II attendance was announced at a little less than 11000. I was at the Division III and II games. Division II definitely was the better attended. Its also is nice to not leave between the Division games. Just go out and walk around the arena between games. Buy a pop for $6 and enjoy- free refills on the $6 pop- what a bargain. LOL
School wise in Division III Harvest Prep largest crowd (brought all students for semi final)- Oregon Stritch 2nd best closely followed by Purcell. Lutheran East smallest crowd of the day-maybe 200.
In Division II Sheridan by far- had fans up in the 300's. Other 3 were Ok and about the same- probably 600/700 per school.

Division III was pathetic, but the private schools factor into that. D2 was decent, but I'd be expecting close to 15,000 for the D2 session over the old split-format.

High school sports attendance is definitely declining.

What's the final verdict on attendance this year ?

Per. OHSAA Championship games attendance:
Div.1 - 8,675
Div. 2 - 9,881
Div. 3 - 7,714
Div. 4 - 9,105

9.5 INCHES wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2019 10:23 pm Per. OHSAA Championship games attendance:
Div.1 - 8,675
Div. 2 - 9,881
Div. 3 - 7,714
Div. 4 - 9,105

Heck, my as well just hold the games at the Convo. lol

Drop the private and prep schools and there will be a big difference in attendance