Attendance at High School Sporting Events Tops 500 Million

Here is some great news from the NFHS regarding attendance figures for high school sports. This reiterates what we have been preaching, high school sports are the audience corporate sponsors NEED to be in front of.  

More fans attend high school basketball and football events than the same sports at the college and professional levels combined, according to a survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

         

During the 2009-10 school year, approximately 336 million fans attended high school regular-season and playoff games in football and girls and boys basketball – more than 2½ times the 133 million spectators who attended events in those sports at the college and professional levels.

         

In addition, attendance at events in the top 16 high school sports from a participation standpoint was approximately 510 million during the 2009-10 school year, including 468 million during regular-season events and 42 million for state association playoff contests.

         

The NFHS surveyed high school athletic directors at small (up to 1,000 enrollment), medium (1,000 to 2,200) and large (more than 2,220) high schools and multiplied the average regular-season attendance (based on the schools that responded) in each sport by the number of schools in each enrollment category that sponsor the sport. A similar method was used to determine overall attendance at postseason events conducted by NFHS member state associations.

         

In addition to basketball and football, others sports included in the survey were baseball, cross country, field hockey, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling. Where applicable, attendance for both boys and girls contests was included.

         

When combining attendance at regular-season girls and boys contests, basketball led the way with about 170 million fans, followed closely by football with 166 million. Soccer ranked third at 24 million, followed by baseball (20 million), volleyball (17 million), softball (15.8 million), wrestling (10 million), track and field (6.6 million), ice hockey (6 million), swimming and diving (4.8 million), lacrosse (4.5 million), cross country (3 million), water polo (1.8 million), tennis (1.8 million), golf (1.3 million) and field hockey (800,000).

         

While there are about 40 sports listed in the NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, the remaining sports not included in the attendance survey have minimal participation numbers nationally and would collectively add fewer than a million spectators annually. This is the first attempt (through the means of a survey) by the NFHS, the national leadership organization for high school athletic and performing arts activities, to determine national attendance figures at the high school level.

“This first-of-its-kind survey of attendance figures at the high school level is certainly a great sign that high school sports continue to be a big part of communities throughout our nation,” said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. “A ticket to a high school sporting event remains one of the best values for the entertainment dollar.”

Take a Look at the Numbers

7.6 million students participate in high school sports annually, 7.6 million!  Another way to look at it is 55.1% of students enrolled in high school participates in athletics!
 

U.S. soccer stunted by its own culture

We came across this interesting blog that we wanted to share:

By Luke Cyphers and Doug McIntyre

A couple of years ago, one of this blog's writers had the opportunity to take his daughter to a soccer clinic featuring Abby Wambach. The U.S. star was appropriately charming and inspiring in front of her rapt audience of 200 or so young girls. More than that, she gave a great tip on heading the ball: Square up to the target, with your hands in front of you, and as you strike the ball, move your hands down and back. "Like you're planting ski poles," she said.

Fast forward two years, with said daughter and writer on the couch, watching Wambach save U.S. Soccer's year with a textbook header to tie Brazil on the way to an unforgettable shootout victory. As ball hit net, writer turned to daughter and said, "ski poles."

Of such fundamentals are great soccer moments made. You can have all the grit, determination and American spirit in the world, but without skill it won't amount to much. That's the scary undercurrent of the American women's wonderful run to the World Cup final.

Not to throw cold water on it -- okay, we are throwing cold water on it -- the U.S. women overachieved in Germany. Sure, they were gritty, determined and all that. But they weren't the most skilled team, not by a long shot.

The U.S. lost to Japan because they weren't talented enough with the ball to build a big lead, or calm enough on the ball to hold a small one. In other words, the women are beset by the same long-term problems that confound the men's squad -- a lack of touch, skill and (Wambach and Alex Morgan excepted) finishing ability compared to the world's best teams.

That situation isn't likely to improve soon. The problem is the culture. This nation's soccer instructional system is still more about rich parents, and the coaches who profit from them, than about teaching young children to master the ball.

These are not novel observations: too much tactical coaching, not enough technical instruction; too many soccer parents trying to teach a game they don't know, not enough small-sided pickup matches that let the game itself teach; too much pay-to-play, not enough opportunities for lower-class kids.

It is nonetheless maddening to see the once-dominant women's team starting to slide for the same reasons the men's team has had such a hard time catching up to the planet's elite. The women's program, whose World Cup victory in '99 did so much for U.S. Soccer when it was still reeling from the men's debacle in France in '98, was built on Title IX and strong, athletic, pioneering players who demanded their sport be taken seriously. But since the turn of the century, serious women's soccer has expanded beyond the U.S. and Scandinavia. Countries already versed in the game started to transfer the culture of the sport to the distaff side. Germany and Brazil became powerhouses. France, Italy and Mexico started producing female players with touch and verve because those countries know how to teach the game. Japan does, too.

The U.S. still doesn't. The culture that built the great U.S. women's teams was based on parents who loved their daughters, but who didn't necessarily love soccer. Those parents saw a path to confidence, life lessons and college scholarships. But unlike the rest of the world, most of those parents didn't, and don't, see the game as an end in itself. That's why so few people follow the women's professional league here, despite having the chance to see Wambach, Morgan and Marta go head to head.

This culture gap is catching up with the American women. Most American youth coaches still validate their status (and justify their salaries) by winning tournaments, and that will always lead to the recruitment of big, fast kids who can overpower other preteens and earn results. It can put an early-blooming child on a path to an under-14 showcase, which can put her on a path to the NCAA. But it doesn't cultivate creativity and comfort on the ball, the way places like Brazil and France and Japan do. There, coaches don't care who wins a U-12 match. They care whether players can settle a heavy pass with one deft touch or use guile and footwork to escape double-teams. American kids? Too many of them spend more time in minivans traveling to meaningless tournaments than they do on the ball.

In fairness, U.S. Soccer is trying hard to change the system. But that project is just starting, and it's akin to turning around a supertanker.

In the meantime, the rest of the world's women's teams are rising, and the U.S. will find it increasingly harder to maintain its elite status.

For the men, an encouraging number of young professionals abroad is offset by a sensational generation of Mexican players; Chicharito and Co. have the potential to make U.S. fans miserable for a decade.

That prospect leads to a couple of unsettling observations.

Without Wambach's heroics against Brazil, U.S. Soccer would have been on a grim losing streak. A few more seconds, and the women's worst WC showing ever would have been a dreary cap on a year that featured the men's second consecutive World Cup elimination by Ghana, the doomed bid to host the 2022 event, the failure even to qualify for the U-20 men's World Cup and the thrilling but ultimately crushing Gold Cup loss to El Tri.

With the United States years away from reaping the rewards of its new development initiative, and men's and women's soccer improving around the world, the frustration American fans felt this summer at the conclusion of both the women's World Cup and the Gold Cup might just be foreshadowing.

For the next several years, U.S. fans on both sides of the gender divide may look back at the last three summers -- the 2009 Confederations Cup upset of Spain and near-miss in the final; the dramatic group stage triumph of the 2010 World Cup; and the excitement of this women's World Cup -- as a high-water mark.

More "ski poles," please. And footskills.

Wondering the labor demands of high school football: Tim Warsinskey's Take

Reprinted from The Plain Dealer, August 2, 2011
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A victory for one is a victory for all.

Now that the NFL work stoppage is over for a measly 2,000 pro football players, the time has come to organize America's real fighting footballers, our 1.1 million high school gridiron heroes.

Allow me to introduce myself as the grand poobah of what I shall call the National Friday Night Lights Players Association, or NFNLPA. Look for the union label.

Listen up. We have certain demands.

You may have noticed the NFL owners' primary negotiating tactic was to lock out players and threaten their paychecks. Have you also noticed that, in high school, our players are locked out if they don't pay the owners, i.e., the school board, pay-to-participate fees?

What's wrong with that picture? From now on, football is free.

The boss needs you. You don't need him.

The NFL's new labor agreement bans two-a-day football practices, which high school coaches expect to begin next week.

Think that's a good idea? Think again, Ted Ginn.

And what's with outdoor workouts in the weather? It's been 90-odd degrees all summer. As our NFL brethren have demonstrated, it is improper to rehearse the art of football outdoors if there's a threat of rain, snow or double rainbows. Every football team should have a place to perfect themselves indoors, closer to the players lounge and cafeteria. Geneva and Massillon have indoor fields, why not Garfield and Midpark?

Not to go all Upton Sinclair on you, but these conditions make The Jungle look like Dante's Paradiso.

We're all in this together.

The NFL players and owners agreed to keep their season at 16 games in part because there aren't enough quarterbacks to get the Browns through 18 games. Last year, state finalists St. Edward, Maple Heights, Buchtel and Chagrin Falls played 15 games and averaged 13.5 wins while attending school full-time. The Browns won five games with no apparent other responsibilities.

Either the Browns should do our players' homework, or our players should get Tuesdays off from school.

Which side are you on, boys?

How many schools have 50-50 raffles that benefit the marching band? The band? Seriously? The band plays the Doobie Brothers for 10 minutes dressed like palace guards and they get to take up a collection? And there are our heroic linemen and linebackers fighting for leftover concession-stand pizza after the game.

The NFNLPA demands every cent of the 75-25 (no more 50-50), go to the players postgame spread from Morton's Steakhouse.

No Porterhouse, no peace!

The NFL and players union negotiated a 50-50 split of a $9 billion revenue pie. The OHSAA has an annual budget of about $12 million. Know what its largest source of revenue is? Football. The playoffs alone generate about $4 million annually, to say nothing of television revenues.

And they expect our boys to go to work in a yellow school bus? Do you think OHSAA Commissioner Dan Ross rides a bus?

Labor creates all wealth.

Finally, the NFL contract locks up rookies for four years. That, of course, is unrealistic for our boys who have just four years of high school to maximize their worth. We're going to leverage Boss Ross for free agency after two years. Just imagine the bidding wars between Eds and Iggy, or Maple and The Ville.

Solidarity forever!