The 2023-24 Michigan high school football postseason saw both highs and lows in attendance, though its spot as the most attended sporting event remains in tact.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association announced Wednesday that football playoffs maintained its status as the top draw among high school sporting events, even with a mix of attendance gains and declines.
According to the MHSAA, the 2023 football postseason attracted 363,563 spectators, more than 80,000 more than boys basketball, which ranked second.
However, football postseason attendance for the 2023 season saw a 5% decrease from the 2022 postseason, though its semifinals drew the highest attendance (32,596) since the 2012-13 school year.
Geoff Kimmerly, the MHSAA's Director of Communications told MLive in an email response Wednesday that while there was a slight decrease, there were factors that played a part in the situation.
"We certainly would like to see as many people as possible attend playoff games and cheer on their teams or just sit back and enjoy the competition, but there are so many factors beyond our control that can affect attendance - weather usually the most significant," Kimmerly said.
Kimmerly added there were no concerns regarding attendance because the football postseason attendance numbers from 2023 were the second highest in the past seven years and the semifinal numbers were a decade best.
"The decrease from two years ago is likely just part of the expected ebb and flow," he said. "Preliminary totals from the playoffs this fall are consistent with what we drew in 2023, which would make these another of the most-watched playoffs over the last several.
"And obviously other sports saw increases, which helped our overall total end up only slightly below the previous school year."
The 2023 football state finals featured a schedule change, moving from the traditional Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving to Saturday and Sunday, but the original Friday-Saturday schedule returned this fall.
Overall, the MHSAA drew 1.4 million spectators for postseason events for the 2023-24 school year, thanks to a record number increase for girls sports postseason events.
The overall tournament attendance reached more than 1.4 million for the second straight year, according to the MHSAA.