Does anyone have conrete attendance numbers from this past weekend? OHSAA.org only lists 2 of the 6 in their official box scores.

Div. 5 - 6654
Div. 4 - 10329 (thanks iced_earth)
Div. 2 - 6699

Norwayne/Kenton had to eclipse 11,000 and guessing the same in the Div. 1 game.

Wondering how having 10 of the 12 finalists being public schools impacted numbers, if at all.

Daily Record and Max Preps both stated Norwayne vs. Kenton drew 10,329.

With STO you will never get the big numbers again.

Year _Total _Average
1999 60,111 10,002
2000 57,678 9.613
2001 65,663 10,944
2002 65,584 10,931
2003 60,586 10,098
2004 52,799 8,800
2005 59,410 9,902
2006 48,932 8,155
2007 50,972 8,495
2008 48,420 8,070
2009 39,027 6,504
2010 35,783 5,964

It has been trending down. Much of it of course has to do with it being on TV.

I remember in 2001 having to drive to another town to see it on TV because many places didnt have ONN yet. I think it was like 2003 or so before our cable company that serviced the area even had ONN. Unsure when STO took over and I believe they are more prevelant than ONN ever was.

Between 2008 and 2009 is the biggest dropoff it seems. I found an article from 2009 stating that it will be STO's 3rd year of carrying the finals so that means it started in 2007.

Maybe took a year for STO to branch out to many more cable companies, or more likely more people hounding their carriers to have it.

6,000 fans in Ohio stadium is going to look silly when the title games are back in Columbus...keep them in Canton/Massillon

how large was the D-I crowd?

I think moving it to Ohio stadium will result in a attendance jump.
1. Because of the newness of it being there instead of in NE ohio.
2. Many people have never been to the Shoe, and it is more iconic than Massillon and Canton
3 Closer to the center of the state.

I have traveled to Columbus to follow local teams in the state finals a number of times because it is much closer (still would be about 2 hours though) and even though a conference foe is playing in the state finals in football every year I am not making the trek up there to see them. Just too danged far.

^Plus there are lot of places near The Shoe where fans can go to hang out between games. Better restaurants, better night life in C-bus.

thavoice;1003150 wrote:I remember in 2001 having to drive to another town to see it on TV because many places didnt have ONN yet.

I lived in Toledo and drove a restarant in Waterville to watch a few of the games since it was the only town with a restarant open on Friday morning.

Average attendance will be up some this year because of the publics....esp. Norwayne

Per Sunday's Repository, a blurb about attendance said that they don't actually count the tickets , they just take the amount of money from ticket sales and divide that by the ticket price. So who knows how they get a number as some are presale at one price $8.00, minus the amount the schools get to keep , and at the gate at $10.00, so it's kind of hard to see how they would have any accurate counts. It seems like the money from say 7000 tickets sold could yield an attendance of 5,500 if that's really the way they figure.

riders1;1003550 wrote:Per Sunday's Repository, a blurb about attendance said that they don't actually count the tickets , they just take the amount of money from ticket sales and divide that by the ticket price. So who knows how they get a number as some are presale at one price $8.00, minus the amount the schools get to keep , and at the gate at $10.00, so it's kind of hard to see how they would have any accurate counts. It seems like the money from say 7000 tickets sold could yield an attendance of 5,500 if that's really the way they figure.

I'd guess they'd count the presale money and then count the money from tickets sold at the gate separately. This conspiracy theory about the OHSAA and attendance numbers is bizarre to say the least.

It's really going to suck having them moved to Columbus.....I love the atmosphere at Fawcett/Paul Brown and nothing can match that.....even the shoe.

Does anyone know who all the people were standing on the sidelines? I know there are usually some standing but this year it seemed like they were endzone to endzone on both sides and I don't recall this many before.

Old Rider;1003167 wrote:6,000 fans in Ohio stadium is going to look silly when the title games are back in Columbus...keep them in Canton/Massillon

Agree 100% I remember back in the day when we would play there it was dumb! Could have heard a pin drop.

Red Rider Nation;1003777 wrote:Agree 100% I remember back in the day when we would play there it was dumb! Could have heard a pin drop.

LOL You never played there

1_beast;1003802 wrote:LOL You never played there

Um ya Orrville did. Got wooped by Columbus DeSales the year i remember! I believe they played their one other year too and lost to Bishop Ready

1_beast;1003802 wrote:LOL You never played there

1983 and 1985.

RR nation, RR1, and myself were just little guys then, but I remember both games and how big (empty) the stadium felt!

Sonofanump;1003488 wrote:I lived in Toledo and drove a restarant in Waterville to watch a few of the games since it was the only town with a restarant open on Friday morning.

We went to a bar in Maria Stein, the home of the Marion Local Flyers, who just won their 5th title. That bar gave away free jello shots for every Marion score, they scored in the 60s that day and ran outta shots right before halftime!



I was at the Celina vs Brecksville state finals game in the early 80's. I was a young pup and I remember a few things:
1. Some guy from the other team kicking long FG's in pregame (Tom Tupa)
2. Some fans brought and threw toilet paper (yeah...as a kid it was kinda funny I guess)
3. I asked dad that if it was such a big game then why was the place so empty.



Thing is...other states dont seem to have an issue with playing games in their big stadiums. They have had their games on TV for YEARS before ohio did. Watched games on tv that were in the dome in detroit, indy dome, and ven the Western Pa finals at three rivers/heinz field. Still is a big game...and I think kids will love playing in 'the shoe'

thavoice;1003981 wrote: Thing is...other states dont seem to have an issue with playing games in their big stadiums. They have had their games on TV for YEARS before ohio did. Watched games on tv that were in the dome in detroit, indy dome, and ven the Western Pa finals at three rivers/heinz field. Still is a big game...and I think kids will love playing in 'the shoe'

Why do people want to make Ohio like other states? If you like those other states so much, go watch those finals. Ohio is different, lets stay that way.

Mooney44Cards;1004048 wrote:Why do people want to make Ohio like other states? If you like those other states so much, go watch those finals. Ohio is different, lets stay that way.

Im with you...keep the games in Stark County! Not too many states have 2 high school stadiums ranked in the top 10 in the entire country within 15 miles of each other!

As long as STO continues to show games live, I don't care where they play. On the other side of the coin, if my team played in state finals, I'd follow them anywhere.

holdingout;1004087 wrote:As long as STO continues to show games live, I don't care where they play. On the other side of the coin, if my team played in state finals, I'd follow them anywhere.

As most fans always have, and always will.

It is getting the casual fans to attend the games is what puts them over the top. Fans of the schools will travel wherever for their state finals, but it is those who just want to go and attend games is what they are wanting to improve.

Our conference has at least one team, many times two, teams at the state finals each year. If my team is there...I go, but if not...man, I am not driving all that way. I attend alot of playoff games of other teams in our conference so I do follow and support them. When they make it to columbus for baseball/basketball I tend to go because it is 2 hours or less.....but NE ohio is NE ohio.

The OHSAA wants to increase the attendance on the games, and by putting them in a location where alot more people can make it to without too much trouble is how they will get it done.

thavoice;1004415 wrote:As most fans always have, and always will.

It is getting the casual fans to attend the games is what puts them over the top. Fans of the schools will travel wherever for their state finals, but it is those who just want to go and attend games is what they are wanting to improve.

Our conference has at least one team, many times two, teams at the state finals each year. If my team is there...I go, but if not...man, I am not driving all that way. I attend alot of playoff games of other teams in our conference so I do follow and support them. When they make it to columbus for baseball/basketball I tend to go because it is 2 hours or less.....but NE ohio is NE ohio.

The OHSAA wants to increase the attendance on the games, and by putting them in a location where alot more people can make it to without too much trouble is how they will get it done.

No one in Columbus cares. They have consistently demonstrated that if you aren't Ohio State athletics, you are wasting your time trying to attract a crowd in that town.

ts1227;1004664 wrote:No one in Columbus cares. They have consistently demonstrated that if you aren't Ohio State athletics, you are wasting your time trying to attract a crowd in that town.

Amen.