Michigan Stadium to host HS football for the first time ever
Michigan Stadium will host 7 HS football games from August 25-27.
It's being called Battle of the Big House.
Warning: Freep link.
Games-
- Brighton vs Detroit East English Village
- Walled Lake Western vs Farmington
- Kalamazoo Central vs St. Joseph
- Clarkston vs Lapeer
- Novi Detroit Catholic Central vs Sterling Heights Stevenson
- East Kentwood vs Farmington Hills Harrison
- Pioneer vs Muskegon
Pioneer-Muskegon will be a good one
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If by "good" you mean Pioneer will get curb stomped.
I'm afraid that game is going to be really ugly.
Really cool idea, kids will remember the experience for life. Plus, it doesn't cost Michigan much and it leads to a lot of goodwill among local highschools and communities. This would have been impossible under Brandon since he would have tried to squeeze as much money as possible to rent the Big House.
And TomVH says more games are likely to come.
When EL was "awarded" the MHSAA basketball finals and semis, it made it a lot easier for Sparty to recruit instate and more difficult for Michigan. When it used to be fair, Sparty got the semis and Michigan got the finals. Great players got to play in both venues.
Michigan needs to host a tournament like that for basketball at Crisler. Since it is their place, they could cherry-pick schools with top recruits.I don't know if it would help, but it can't hurt.
The MLive article I just read on the topic said the 14 schools are coming together to foot the $60k usage fee being charged by UM to use The Big House. $10 per ticket to get in should cover that cost and then some, as I have to imagine that the 7 games combined will bring in way more than 6000 people.
The boys bball championships used to be at Crisler. That changed when Breslin was built - it was newer and far more shiny than Crisler at the time. Back in the 80's Cazzi's House was on the low end of Big Ten facilities and in bad need of renovation. That came well after the Championship games were moved to Breslin, though.
Then The Palace hosted for four years, Breslin hosted its first semi's and finals weekend in 1994. Breslin hosted some of the semi-final games but not the finals for the first couple years it was open.
The MHSAA home office was on Trowbridge Rd about two blocks away, it moved the finals to EL (mostly) for convenience and its central location. The MHSAA offices are still only a couple miles further North in EL.
as anyone but the Breslin is the perfect location for the MHSAA finals being centrally located in the state and can handle those rare games that everyone wants to see. I'd much rather have them in EL than AA.
The only thing I wish would happen is a separate floor without the Spartan logos for the MHSAA.
The MHSAA conducts none of their state Championships in Ann Arbor, which makes one wonder about that question.
You aren't going to get something you don't pursue.
Lansing/MSU hosts a bunch of MHSAA Championships beyond basketball (baseball, softball, girls soccer). Does seem like a concerted effort on their part. The Lansing chamber of commerce would support it: it fills hotel rooms.
There's a Paramus Catholic High School
And there's a Paramus High School
Same northern New Jersey town. but when it comes to high school football, there's a very big difference.
But Paramus High School produced Stacey Dash, so there's that...
And some other notable alumni of Paramus High School include:
- Mark Fields, President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company
- Dean Friedman of the 1977 one-hit wonder "Ariel"
- Matt Ghaffari, 1996 Olympic silver-medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling
- Jamie Gold, winner of the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event
- John Robertson, Villanova quarterback who won the 2014 Walter Payton Award
- Steven H. Temares, CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond
- Elaine Zayak, the 1982 World figure skating champion
This is a pretty cool idea and these actually are some pretty good matchups. I can only imagine how those kids will feel getting to play one of their games on Michigan Stadium's field - they'll remember that one for a long time, win or lose, I would think. As someone mentioned, this seems like it will build some great goodwill with in-state programs, which would be an added bonus.
I wonder if they'll open these to the general public - I actually haven't seen a high school game since I was in high school.
They almost have to be open to the public, as every game the schools play otherwise is. I'd be stunned if they weren't...
And yeah, fantastic idea!
says that tickets to get in will be $10, so it will be open to the general public.
Just a small correction, Farmington Hills isn't a high school. There's North Farmington, Farmington and Harrison in the Farmington/Farmington Hills area. WLW is playing Farmington.
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plays for St. Joseph.
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Two, the Big Day Prep Classic at Wayne State already features those schools. They already signed the agreement to play there.
Maybe next year.
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Antwan Reed, 6-7 286 lb OT
I'm not saying those teams wouldn't bring in a lot of fans, but they wouldn't have as big of a following as many, many other schools. We don't want to have this event flop when the seats are extremely empty.
This opinion is based on observing the finals at Ford Field. Typically, the schools that are the sole representative of their town / community bring the most fans. Smaller schools can have a big following because of the tight knit community.
nobody is becoming a millionaire off of this event. Reads like Clarkston HS and Lapeer HS are hosting the event, so the monetary risk is on them, not U-M.
But U-M and Ann Arbor should like this --- the out-of-region schools means some folk spending incremental $ on campus/in town.
The games won't be on ESPN either: nobody is going to say "look at all those empty seats, that reflects poorly on <<fill in the blank>>."
Seems like a good event for U-M to get behind: over time, it will likely draw the bigger names away from Wayne State's opening week event.
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I feel like this happened before, too. But... I dunno. If it isn't in the "Non-Michigan Events at Michigan Stadium" SuperGuide... Who are we to doubt?
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The first time Ann Arbor Pioneer and Ann Arbor Huron played against each other they played in Michigan Stadium. It was in 1970 and Pioneer won 25-0. I was there and it was spectacular.
Excellent work, there.
Figured something like that had been the case..
But I do remember it being front page Ann Arbor News. As I recall Huron High had only been around for a year or two. That might have been their inaugaral football season, if not game.
seems like a cool idea.
Looking forward to Friday Night Tykes: Striping the Birthplace.