A Look At The 2021 OHSAA State Football Championship Attendance Numbers

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cjb5656 said:
High school football attendance has been on an overall downward trend for quite a while now.
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I was going through the program during the games this weekend and looked at attendance records for each division. For D5 only 2 of the top 10 attended championship games were after 1999, and they were 2000 and 2003 (could be wrong on the second, but it was for sure early 2000's)
 
doubtme said:
aren't both soccer stadiums you mentioned grass fields? then no chance they play there.
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There's a difference between the grass field at Lower.com Field and your run-of-the-mill high school stadium.
 
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Most of the local bars near me (Cleveland West Park) televised the D1 game on Saturday. Met a bunch of the guys and the place was packed. I understand the other bars were too. Can't beat it, beer, food and FB. All for less than $40. No crowds, no lines, no parking headaches, not outside in the cold subject to the elements! The place was rocking!
 
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Ed's '74 said:
Most of the local bars near me (Cleveland West Park) televised the D1 game on Saturday. Met a bunch of the guys and the place was packed. I understand the other bars were too. Can't beat it, beer, food and FB. All for less than $40. No crowds, no lines, no parking headaches, not outside in the cold subject to the elements! The place was rocking!
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I'm glad you had a great time watching at the bar. But for me, I enjoyed being there in person. You can't beat the being there live. As far as your negatives, for me none of them were. There was never a crowded line, the parking was never a problem for me, the cold I simply dressed appropriately. But as they say, to each his own. Bottom line: we both enjoyed our experiences and had a great time.
 
*67 said:
There's a difference between the grass field at Lower.com Field and your run-of-the-mill high school stadium.
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The crew have zero interest in hosting football at Lower.com

historic crew stadium perhaps, but even that is unlikely as they use it as a training center and second team field now. They had it bubbled up this year before the state finals started.
 
hammer89 said:
The crew have zero interest in hosting football at Lower.com

historic crew stadium perhaps, but even that is unlikely as they use it as a training center and second team field now. They had it bubbled up this year before the state finals started.
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Agreed on the above re: Lower.com Field.

Historic Crew Stadium does have a turf field now (they ripped out the grass field after the Crew moved to the new stadium). But as hammer89 noted, HCS is part of the Crew's new training center (OhioHealth Performance Center), and a seasonal 'bubble dome' was placed on the field back in November.
 
Ed's '74 said:
Most of the local bars near me (Cleveland West Park) televised the D1 game on Saturday. Met a bunch of the guys and the place was packed. I understand the other bars were too. Can't beat it, beer, food and FB. All for less than $40. No crowds, no lines, no parking headaches, not outside in the cold subject to the elements! The place was rocking!
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Public house?
 
Ed's '74 said:
I was at Third Place at Warren Village. I understand PJ McIntyres and Public House had it too.
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Just asked because i had alot of fun there when i lived in west park 25 years ago. Brother in law went to Eds an took me there. Good times
 
BirdDog10 said:
Massillon has played in the state championship game at Benson twice since the games were moved back to Canton and the stadium has not been close to selling out. Mapfre at over 19,000 seats or the new crew stadium at over 20,000 would be plenty of capacity
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Yes, but they have grass.
 
Al_Bundy said:
Yes, but they have grass.
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As I mentioned above, Historic Crew Stadium (formerly Mapfre) has a turf field now. But doubtful the Crew would be interested in hosting it there, given it's role as part of the new training site / home to the new second team 'Crew 2'.

Edit: I believe they are still planning on hosting concerts at Historic Crew Stadium, so as far as hosting the OHSAA Football Championships, you never know. FYI, the photo below showing the bubble and the new turf field at HCS was tweeted out by the Crew on 11/18/21.

1638834038005.jpeg
 
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Ed's '74 said:
Most of the local bars near me (Cleveland West Park) televised the D1 game on Saturday. Met a bunch of the guys and the place was packed. I understand the other bars were too. Can't beat it, beer, food and FB. All for less than $40. No crowds, no lines, no parking headaches, not outside in the cold subject to the elements! The place was rocking!
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Oneof the first years our town did not have ONN so we went to the Town Tavern in Chickasaw. That is where Marion Local recruits heavily. They had free jello shots for each MSML TD. Well, the Steiners put up 60 plus that day and they ran put of shots at halftime.

The rest of the evening was a blur....

If my school is blessed to get to the finals again I would like to believe I would go, but after all my family runs through...which could be 12 more years...I would believe I'd still go but a cozy local bar would be tempting.

.
 
Carl Rick said:
The OHSAA is able to hold the games in Canton/Mass. due to low cost. The area provides a large volunteer force. So, all this noise about any other region needs to figure out a cost-effective manner to do so.
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Massillon yes, Canton not so much. Benson Stadium and HoF Village is a money making venture. Most of the folks working at Benson this weekend were paid event staff with a smattering of volunteers from the school trying to earn a little something for extra curriculars.
 
thavoice said:
Oneof the first years our town did not have ONN so we went to the Town Tavern in Chickasaw. That is where Marion Local recruits heavily. They had free jello shots for each MSML TD. Well, the Steiners put up 60 plus that day and they ran put of shots at halftime.

The rest of the evening was a blur....

If my school is blessed to get to the finals again I would like to believe I would go, but after all my family runs through...which could be 12 more years...I would believe I'd still go but a cozy local bar would be tempting.

.
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Ha! Stuff you can't easily do at the stadium but tailgating is alot of fun except the trips to the head. I guess at 66, I have had my share of games between playing, coaching and just being a fan!
 
jackson03 said:
This is no dig on SW Ohio because it's much nicer than NE Ohio, but if you're not gonna have it at the Pro Football HOF and you're not gonna have it in state capitol/OSU HQ Columbus, why on earth would you have it in Cincinnati? You could just as easily stick it at the Browns' stadium. Which would be an equally bad idea. Unless HOF Village comes about and is successful (highly iffy) in Canton then the best place to get fans with no skin in the game is Columbus. The only way I see Cincinnati is if you're just rotating yearly and don't care about attendance or anything football experience related for the kids. Or just move each individual division state championship game to the best place geographically for the two schools -- in which case PBS would come up a lot. Abandon having them all in one location.
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1st the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over with lousy results (low attendance at Canton), the attendance in Cincy may or may not be better but you won't know if you don't try. 2nd have people from NE Ohio drive 4 hrs. to Cincy for a football game and see how they like it, I laugh when posters say the distance does not matter, I know several people who did not go to Canton this week because of the distance, heck I have missed a couple of the State games myself because of the 3.5 drive. If nothing else have the D -1 to D - 4 games at Canton and the D - 5,6,7 games at Piqua (8200), many people in MAC land would have gone to all 3 games if they would have been at Piqua, and I have no doubt the attendance would have been much higher than Canton.
 
Enough money already goes to Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland already. Ohio is lucky to have the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Stadium so use it.
 
The location should be on the merits of ability, hosting quality to schools/what the OHSAA wants, hosting quality to fans and venue quality. Which, Canton does fine in all regards.

It shouldn't be on the basis of "economic goodwill", because that's a losing argument to the vast majority of the state that doesn't really care about helping out the City of Canton.
 
Bottom line is interest in highschool sports in Ohio is dwindling. Fan bases are getting older as is the casual fan base that go to these games so you might say I'll go if the game are moved to whatever part of the state that suits you but over a few years if it's not your team playing you'll stop going also. That's just the way it is.
 
Stirred not Shaken said:
If nothing else have the D -1 to D - 4 games at Canton and the D - 5,6,7 games at Piqua (8200), many people in MAC land would have gone to all 3 games if they would have been at Piqua, and I have no doubt the attendance would have been much higher than Canton.
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I wouldn't have a problem with that. If there's a game that makes sense to be held in Piqua, Mansfield, Canton, etc. then just do it. Maybe you can still force the D1s/D2s to Canton or Columbus and that'd be fine.

Believe me if Jackson was playing in a state championship in Cincinnati I'd go, but my chance of driving to see Hoover or Green (two teams I like a lot) there is awfully low. But yeah I'd drive to Akron or Mansfield or something.
 
I don't think any games get played at Ohio Wesleyan. They have a nice place, and it's actually more centrally located than Columbus. The geographical center of Ohio is Centerburg, which is pretty close to Delaware.
 
algernonsidney said:
I don't think any games get played at Ohio Wesleyan. They have a nice place, and it's actually more centrally located than Columbus. The geographical center of Ohio is Centerburg, which is pretty close to Delaware.
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Parking is what I imagine holds them back from hosting state finals, among other reasons.
 
Caleb said:
Bottom line is interest in highschool sports in Ohio is dwindling. Fan bases are getting older as is the casual fan base that go to these games so you might say I'll go if the game are moved to whatever part of the state that suits you but over a few years if it's not your team playing you'll stop going also. That's just the way it is.
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BINGO!!!!

Caleb gets it. As your casual base gets older, ticket sales are going to dwindle. My wife and I used to go every year but as the aches and pains of age are setting in, we just don't have the stamina and strength to walk and sit outside for the games. Ask yourself, how many couples in their 50's or 60's did you see at the game that weren't there to watch anybody in particular?
 
So far I have attended 130 games this year and the attendance on those Ohio games for the most part was very good during the regular season. For the playoff games they were not very good and some of the teams I watched during the regular season I watched in the playoffs.
 
Salesman said:
BINGO!!!! Caleb gets it. As your casual base gets older, ticket sales are going to dwindle. My wife and I used to go every year but as the aches and pains of age are setting in, we just don't have the stamina and strength to walk and sit outside for the games. Ask yourself, how many couples in their 50's or 60's did you see at the game that weren't there to watch anybody in particular?
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Salesman said:
BINGO!!!! Caleb gets it. As your casual base gets older, ticket sales are going to dwindle. My wife and I used to go every year but as the aches and pains of age are setting in, we just don't have the stamina and strength to walk and sit outside for the games. Ask yourself, how many couples in their 50's or 60's did you see at the game that weren't there to watch anybody in particular?
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It could also be the more 'selfish' we are becoming as a whole. I see it more and more each year of those who do not have family involved that they dont support the teams for whatever reasons.

Seems like we used to always have more residents who had been going for decades and decades showing up. Wiht many of them getting long in the tooth those # are dwindling and the younger adults, as a whole, only care if their kids are involved.
 
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