Playoff attendance

Struthersfan said:
This is a page from our local paper back in 1968.
Can you imagine most teams in Ohio now, playing in front of crowds like our first two games that year?
These were crowds just at the beginning of season, and no playoffs back then. Electric crowds.
Seemed like whole towns used to show up back then.
What I wouldn't give to see that all over again.

And yes, they do deserve it now. Because they put in just as much work
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Those were great days for high school football---essentially 3 sports in those days---football, basketball, track. Some schools have around 20 sports now. 17,500 fans jammed South Stadium in '67 for Mooney v. Ursuline---the biggest crowd I personally ever experienced. Chaney v. Ursuline had 14,000 at Rayen just the week prior. 9,000 saw Ursuline at South the week before that. (I was at all 3 games) Not unusual in those days. The massive population loss in the Mahoning Valley is a major factor, too. And some parents don't want their sons playing football nowadays.
 
James x2 said:
Unless there is a hamster on a wheel processing tickets, what's with the extra $2.00 if you buy a ticket within the 3hr. window leading up to game time? Sometimes you have to work and you just don't know if you can go or not. The $$$$ is not the issue. The intentional fleecing of the fanbase is. Electronic transfers of $$$ are pretty instantaneous. Just ask eBAY and Amazon.
Work Waiting GIF by Nike
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so true!!!
 
Stirred not Shaken said:
I have ordered items online before but only sites I trust. I know anybody can be hacked but how secure is the site OHSAA uses to order tix. ID theft can be a b**** even if it is only your c.c. no. and email address. No reason at all not to have paper tix. none at all other than greed or arrogance or both by OHSAA.
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yep!!!!!! totall y agree...
 
thavoice said:
I thought complaints about the online ticketing were unfounded until I started to look around and also by my own actions this weekend.


Friday I sort of wanted to go to a game that was somewhat local. Nice weather. Not too far away. Good facility. Didnt end up going. I wondered why and I cannot help to think it was because of the tickets. In the past I would just drive to the stadium, get ticket and go in. Now I have to get onto the OHSAA ticket site. Find the region. Find the game. Enter in all my CC info, etc. That damned security code is damned hear wore off.

I know...does not seem like much but that ultimately was a reason to talk myself OUT of going when in most years I would have been there.
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I'm surprise that someone from OHSAA didn't knock on my door and ask for $10 when I was watching the replays of the games on WOSN
 
Raider6309 said:
Unless you have a Joe Burrow type player or Massillon in the playoffs, the attendance will always be low with how society is today
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One thing some folks don’t realize is the population is generally older. Throughout the country.
The boomers are old and there isn’t another boom replacing them.
For decades the boomers filled stadiums and now it’s just not as easy or convenient. As a population ages less and less continue to go. Some might have gone out of dedication in a thought they was helping their school with tickets, 50/50 , concession etc..
Mix in a online inconvenience to the aging pop and games that are expected blow outs…

Fans also have so much more information these days. It’s hard to put it in words , but sometimes
I believe ignorance & Curiosity drove some higher attendance .
In other words, some fans didn’t know they didn’t have a shot in hell chance of winning and thought their team was superior.
Or, maybe the fanbase wanted to see the opponent never ever seeing there team or community, band etc..
The feeling of “unique community pride” is disappearing as the internet subverts youth away from a community taught culture to a more universal political approved culture , subsequently the novelty of community interaction begins to be marginalized in affect all communities begin to look the same. Often the only difference found is wealth. The game is solely about sport now , when it was ounce a perceived culture clash through a sporting event.

The younger generation is straddling longer work hours, more jobs forcing weekend hours, (add other sports 2-3 kids playing different sports) you have a mentally & financially exhausted parents ,faculty and student population often pulled in 3 diff directions all at ounce choosing which event they will go to or can afford to go to ( usually whichever their kids/grandkids are participating in).

Times change. I don’t think it’s one thing you can put your finger on. The changes that have occurred in society, ( work, pay, amount of children, more Student extra curricular choices, the current morale of the population) has its affects and they show in attendance.

I think in our modern age internet traffic, game streaming traffic shows interest is up. Just not everyone is able to go in person for reason stated above. And there are always a few communities that are a anomaly. But they are not the norm.
 
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This is very true about kids working more. Friday is a big pay-day. Not sure how much this actually cuts in. I don't think it was ever the entire student population, really just a fraction that goes to games. Families, grads and neighborhood pride mostly made up the home attendance. Those have all been cut into for sure.

I don't think that's anything OHSAA can respond to? Cutting ticket prices isn't going to make some kid decide not to work. Price is based on improving profit and lowering risks. If I'm already paying $10-20 in gas and turnpike fees to get to a game, $10-20 in food, is $2 going to stop me buying a ticket? Maybe, could be an optics issue over a reasoning issue.

Community is fracturing. As someone that considers this "bad," leading to an society that is autistic to the needs of others, anything the school systems can do to get people together in a positive manner is a plus worth economic risk.

On the other hand, I do like the extra space and people are a PITA.
 
The online-only for ticket sales is a killer. There’s a lot of older people who don’t do online, period. That turns into, “oh well, I just won’t go.”

Our school went cashless this year for all events and it was an absolute pain, especially if someone wanted to go last minute. It was also very expensive - $1.33 added to each ticket. Doesn’t seem like much until you have 5-6 family members attend 40+ events in just the fall season. Now multiple that over a years time.
 
thavoice said:
I send OHSAA a card stating that for every game I watch on WOSN I donate $10 to The Human Fund in their name so they can write it off as tax deductible.
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i would have about 100 T shirts for my donation to the human fund by now then....
 
Times change people have lots of entertainment options. Virtually every sport has less fan attendance.
As far as the price of gas, anyone with any basic understanding of supply and demand can figure out why gas prices spike and recede. Who the current resident of the WH has nothing to do with this.
 
kingpin2010 said:
Well there is a reason you are not in charge, you don't think that there is provisions in the agreement to host concerning this? And there is no "stealing", the OHSAA is renting the facility and the facility agrees to the arrangement. They could refuse, and the OHSAA would move the game to a different site.
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Sounds like you’d defend the OHSAA no matter what they do. Bottom line they made it very difficult for a lot of people to attend games. And yes, not allowing schools to get a piece of all tickets sold, to me, is akin to stealing.
 
hammer89 said:
The local school districts are the ones who volunteer to join the OHSAA , elect their board, and vote on their rules. So are they just stealing from themselves?
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Don’t you think those district boards pretty much rubber stamp what the “suits” in Columbus tell them to do? Why would any local board vote to send money to Columbus when they can keep it local. And nobody wants to get on the bad side of the Big Bad OSHAA.
 
Crimson and Black said:
Sounds like you’d defend the OHSAA no matter what they do. Bottom line they made it very difficult for a lot of people to attend games. And yes, not allowing schools to get a piece of all tickets sold, to me, is akin to stealing.
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I believe they have even discontinued the "travel allowance". Schools used get mileage one way to the site as well as meal money for the teams and cheerleaders starting in the first round. It was a nice little reward for making the playoffs. That should be reinstated.

The school share for presale tickets should definitely be happening. It is easier than ever with the online ticketing to track this. They already ask what team you are buying tickets for on the website. That would be a nice incentive for those who are on the fence with the online ticketing process.
 
Crimson and Black said:
Don’t you think those district boards pretty much rubber stamp what the “suits” in Columbus tell them to do? Why would any local board vote to send money to Columbus when they can keep it local. And nobody wants to get on the bad side of the Big Bad OSHAA.
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A local board votes to send money to the OHSAA because they get more in return. insurance, rule books, software to assign officials, training of officials, etc. and the cost is minimal. You still get all your regular season gate, whats it matter if the extra rounds go towards providing all that?
 
BirdDog10 said:
A family of 4 has to drop $48 now if they decide the day of that they want to go to a high school playoff game. The same family can go to a MAC game and get general admission tickets from a student for $40. It's absolutely insane
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28 pre sale, 32 at gate for MAC football.
 
or you just walk around a few minutes until someone offers free tickets they're not going to use. Rarely a game I don't see it.
 
Who didn't see this one coming, for all the talk about lack of attendance, the state was gifted a game between two huge local rivals in Holy Name-Padua who don't have much (if any) playoff history against each other. Put it at Byers, which is about a mile or two from both schools, and it draws 8,000.

Instead, they put it at Brooklyn, which seats 3,200, and to the surprise to no one who has interest in that game, it sold out this morning (think they capped it at 4,000) and now they are urging fans to get there at 5:30 p.m. when gates open to get a seat for a 7 p.m. game, smh.

On top of that, they put the Ed's-McKinley game at Byers (we'll see if it even draws 4,000) and then doubled down on stupid by also making it one of their stream games. HN-Padua, which anybody with a brain knew would sell out Brooklyn, is not one of the streams, so thousands of fans (and that's not hyperbole) are going to be left out in a day where we have a 5-page thread on here about how much attendance sucks. Great job OHSAA!

If they were going to stream Ed's-McKinley anyway and venues are an issue, put that one at Brooklyn or find a small stadium between the two schools, sell it out, and rake on the stream for anybody who can't get a ticket. Then don't stream the HN-Padua game but put it at Byers and rake at the gate.
 
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SVillegrad said:
Who didn't see this one coming, for all the talk about lack of attendance, the state was gifted a game between two huge local rivals in Holy Name-Padua who don't have much (if any) playoff history against each other. Put it at Byers, which is about a mile or two from both schools, and it draws 8,000.

Instead, they put it at Brooklyn, which seats 3,200, and to the surprise to no one who has interest in that game, it sold out this morning (think they capped it at 4,000) and now they are urging fans to get there at 5:30 p.m. when gates open to get a seat for a 7 p.m. game, smh.

On top of that, they put the Ed's-McKinley game at Byers (we'll see if it even draws 4,000) and then doubled down on stupid by also making it one of their stream games. HN-Padua, which anybody with a brain knew would sell out Brooklyn, is not one of the streams, so thousands of fans (and that's not hyperbole) are going to be left out in a day where we have a 5-page thread on here about how much attendance sucks. Great job OHSAA!

If they were going to stream Ed's-McKinley anyway and venues are an issue, put that one at Brooklyn or find a small stadium between the two schools, sell it out, and rake on the stream for anybody who can't get a ticket. Then don't stream the HN-Padua game but put it at Byers and rake at the gate.
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Does seem to be a lack of business thinking there. Hard to know what all goes behind the scenes. It could have been an obvious missed opportunity. Could be hindsight. Sometime for them to incorporate into their thinking for upcoming sports seasons. Everything is an algorithm, feed it better data.
 
Walsh Jesuit vs Benedictine is being played in Elyria. The local casual attendees will be close to zero and I’m sure we’ll see less of both fan bases than we would if the game was at a more centrally located venue.

Heck, there is a D2 Region 6 game (Avon vs Olmsted Falls) being played EAST of Elyria (in Strongsville) and closer to Benny and Walsh.
 
cjb5656 said:
Walsh Jesuit vs Benedictine is being played in Elyria. The local casual attendees will be close to zero and I’m sure we’ll see less of both fan bases than we would if the game was at a more centrally located venue.

Heck, there is a D2 Region 6 game (Avon vs Olmsted Falls) being played EAST of Elyria (in Strongsville) and closer to Benny and Walsh.
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That's another one that makes zero sense, especially since I believe there are usually quite a few students from Strongsville who attend Walsh Jesuit and a handful who attend Benedictine, and I'm guessing that both schools have a decent alumni base that lives in Strongsville (and virtually zero in Elyria).

Even taking out that out, both Benedictine and Walsh are closer in terms of distance and travel time to Strongsville than they are Elyria. Avon is closer to Elyria than it is Strongsville. Olmsted Falls is about 4 miles closer to Strongsville, but the travel time is identical (right now showing 19 minutes to either stadium).

Both stadiums seat 5,000 so the stadium size factor is moot.
 
FWIW

The break even number for the OHSAA for a playoff game (non any level championship game /
no trophys awarded) is 150 paid attendence (estimated)

$1200 to host site + $750 game crew (all striped shirts) = $1950.

:>---

SALT
 
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