Attendance Issues

I wanted to bring this up as it has become a hot topic in Paducah over the last week and see if attendance may be a problem in other places as well or isolated to certain areas.

The Paducah Sun has an article out today about the attendance at Tilghman games. It's been brought up by the local sports reporters on social media and was even being talked about on the radio last night here locally. It's definitely gotten some attention.

The weird thing is, Tilghman usually has well represented crowds on the road when we travel, but have trouble getting people to the stands at home outside of the Mayfield and McCracken games.

There are definitely smaller crowds than in the past. Part of the perception is having people spread out throughout a stadium that seats around 8,500 that makes a decent crowd look small.

Do any teams keep attendance records? I'd love to see some data on 3A size schools in particular and also all the other classes to have a basis to go off of.

Is Tilghman being called out justly? That's what I'm on a mission to find out. I look forward to diving in to this and finding out what exactly keeps people away and if we really have a problem in Paducah.

I wanted to bring this up as it has become a hot topic in Paducah over the last week and see if attendance may be a problem in other places as well or isolated to certain areas.

 

The Paducah Sun has an article out today about the attendance at Tilghman games. It's been brought up by the local sports reporters on social media and was even being talked about on the radio last night here locally. It's definitely gotten some attention.

 

The weird thing is, Tilghman usually has well represented crowds on the road when we travel, but have trouble getting people to the stands at home outside of the Mayfield and McCracken games.

 

There are definitely smaller crowds than in the past. Part of the perception is having people spread out throughout a stadium that seats around 8,500 that makes a decent crowd look small.

 

Do any teams keep attendance records? I'd love to see some data on 3A size schools in particular and also all the other classes to have a basis to go off of.

 

Is Tilghman being called out justly? That's what I'm on a mission to find out. I look forward to diving in to this and finding out what exactly keeps people away and if we really have a problem in Paducah.

Just in the last day or so Beechwood and the Lexington schools were mentioned as places where "no one" shows up anymore. I am thinking it is pretty much everywhere...

I was talking to one of my buddies here in Louisville sometime in the last year...he's a Ballard grad. He said he used to go to at least half of Ballard's football games around town in any given year, but since his son started into middle school baseball and AAU basketball he doesn't have the desire to go sit in the stands for another game if he doesn't have to be there. "I already have 80 billion games I have to go to for my own kid."

That was an interesting take that I'd have personally given very little consideration to until I heard him say it.

It's becoming that way everywhere-sadly. If the weather is anything less than perfect and/or if the game(s) aren't expected to be good, then people are just going to stay home- especially in bigger towns with so much more to do.

Places get spoiled also. Tilghman, Beechwood, etc are traditional powers in really nice towns and/or even metropolitan areas with so much more to do on a Friday night when its 40 degrees or below. Danville, Bardstown, Somerset, etc are the same way in most cases. If its not a big game or the weather isn't perfect, then crowds just aren't like they once were and I don't expect it to get any better.

I was talking to one of my buddies here in Louisville sometime in the last year...he's a Ballard grad. He said he used to go to at least half of Ballard's football games around town in any given year, but since his son started into middle school baseball and AAU basketball he doesn't have the desire to go sit in the stands for another game if he doesn't have to be there. "I already have 80 billion games I have to go to for my own kid."

 

That was an interesting take that I'd have personally given very little consideration to until I heard him say it.

Huge factor. I have one playing one sport all year, with multiple practices and games all week, and the other playing a different sport all year, with even more practices and games on multiple teams. Unless the game is going to be really compelling, I'm often needing some "let's have a quiet night at home with nothing to do" time on Friday night. No doubt, the proliferation of youth sports have made it harder to plan around H.S. events that used to be mainstays, unless you have literal skin in the game.

This is off topic slightly but I still think it is germane. I remember when I was young and there almost nothing on TV to watch on the handful of available channels outside of the usual stuff and news. On Friday night when a NBA game from the west coast was on TV at 1130pm it was a special treat. Today you can watch almost any sport any day/time of the week as much as you want. Then when you add the Internet/Streaming Services in there are countless interesting things to watch/listen to and there literally isn't enough hours in the day to scratch the surface of what is available. In other words it is the proliferation of everything available competing for the small amount of leisure time we have available and anything other than a compelling high school football game with decent weather is out of the question for most people.

This is off topic slightly but I still think it is germane. I remember when I was young and there almost nothing on TV to watch on the handful of available channels outside of the usual stuff and news. On Friday night when a NBA game from the west coast was on TV at 1130pm it was a special treat. Today you can watch almost any sport any day/time of the week as much as you want. Then when you add the Internet/Streaming Services in there are countless interesting things to watch/listen to and there literally isn't enough hours in the day to scratch the surface of what is available. In other words it is the proliferation of everything available competing for the small amount of leisure time we have available and anything other than a compelling high school football game with decent weather is out of the question for most people.

That hit the nail right on the head.

This is off topic slightly but I still think it is germane. I remember when I was young and there almost nothing on TV to watch on the handful of available channels outside of the usual stuff and news. On Friday night when a NBA game from the west coast was on TV at 1130pm it was a special treat. Today you can watch almost any sport any day/time of the week as much as you want. Then when you add the Internet/Streaming Services in there are countless interesting things to watch/listen to and there literally isn't enough hours in the day to scratch the surface of what is available. In other words it is the proliferation of everything available competing for the small amount of leisure time we have available and anything other than a compelling high school football game with decent weather is out of the question for most people.

Besides all the other viewing options available on a Friday night, the local high school game itself is almost always on radio and many times is being streamed.

Besides all the other viewing options available on a Friday night, the local high school game itself is almost always on radio and many times is being streamed.

Good points and sooner or later I think most schools will be forced to air their own games much like the Highlands Broadcasting Network does for their home football games.

I think team record, opponent, and weather are big factors. St.X packed house for DeSales and Male games when undefeated and good weather. Late in season crowd really dropped off. I think Cincy St.X game had decent crowd for cold weather game. I was disappointed in playoff crowd for both Manual and St.X in playoff game. I think the fair weather fans checked out once lost to Male, Trinity, and Manual. I'm hoping get a good crowd tonight for Male game.

CovCath crowds have been solid this year. Home and away.

Getting people to games appears to be an issue at every level and in every state. It seems people have many more options now on how they would like to spend their Friday evening, especially when the weather starts to decline. With the radio or streaming the average fan can get the game on their phone and be in the comfort of their home where they don’t have to deal with the weather, parking, restrooms, or concessions. It’s a trend that many places are experiencing and I’m not exactly sure how a high school goes about solving the problem.

This is off topic slightly but I still think it is germane. I remember when I was young and there almost nothing on TV to watch on the handful of available channels outside of the usual stuff and news. On Friday night when a NBA game from the west coast was on TV at 1130pm it was a special treat. Today you can watch almost any sport any day/time of the week as much as you want. Then when you add the Internet/Streaming Services in there are countless interesting things to watch/listen to and there literally isn't enough hours in the day to scratch the surface of what is available. In other words it is the proliferation of everything available competing for the small amount of leisure time we have available and anything other than a compelling high school football game with decent weather is out of the question for most people.

That's where I'm at on this. Between high school games on tv as well as live streaming options less people are going if doing so is any inconvenience to them at all. Weather, work schedule, etc.

For what it's worth Ashland has had pretty good attendance for the playoffs considering the weather has been cold enough to keep a lot of people home the first two rounds. Imo a big part of that as well though is the fact that their first two opponents were local schools as opposed to nky schools, they away crowd has been larger than usual.

I go to games in multiple states and have had many of conversations with people about the lack of butts in the seat in some places I go. When I told people in New York the price for a regular season game in Ohio and the cost for playoff games and the state finals, they said they would not pay the price. (7-8 bucks for regualr season games 9 Bucks for a playoff game and 15 dollars (going up this year in Ohio) for a state final game).

I agree with other reasons stated but wanted to add the price thing into this.

To me personally no high school ticket for a sporting event should ever cost more than a ticket for any sporting at the college level.

Examples

Regular season game I attended this year in New York

Game ticket 2 bucks

Programs free

Parking free

Section 6 games at the home of the Buffalo bills

10 bucks per session 2 games one day 3 games the other

Parking free

Program 2 bucks(Covered all teams involved)

I've heard of several schools doing free admission nights. I believe Graves Co. did this.