HOLLAND, MI. - The MHSAA boys Division One State Swim Meet took place last Friday and Saturday at the Holland Aquatic Center, attracting an estimated 1200 visitors to the Holland area.
This was the first year that the MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association) held the State Swim Meet at a location in western Michigan. In past years, the meet has been hosted at larger locations such as the main natatoriums at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Oakland University, all located on the east side of the state.
The event brought in over 1200 swimmers, parents, relatives, teammates and overall swimming fans to the Holland Aquatic Center.
“Due to slower qualifying times this year, this is the largest field [of swimmers] we have ever had,” said meet organizer Marc VanSoest “due to the large field we sold the most amount of tickets in meet history.”
The meet was so crowded that the facility ran out of seats and workers actually had to stop letting people into the facility.
"It was so packed the first day,” said South Lyon High School senior Ryan Beaber, “That my friends and I had to arrive three hours early on Saturday just to get seats.”
Overall the meet was not only a success for the organizers but for the Holland community as well.
According to VanSoest, the record crowd may have had a positive economic impact in the Holland area.
“You probably would see an impact on local businesses a lot especially those around the [Holland Aquatics Center],” he said, “Whenever you get 1200 visitors to a town like Holland, you’re going to see people spend money either through hotels or other local businesses.”
With Holland being a relatively small town, the effects of a large visiting crowd could be seen relatively easy. A lot of the local restaurants were packed, in fact according to the manager of a Subway near the facility; the workers were quickly overwhelmed when a large amount of people showed up after the conclusion of Friday’s events.
Also seeing an impact were local hotels. According to VanSoest most of the high schools at the state meet are from the east side of Michigan, requiring many to stay in hotels for the two day meet, including people like Beaber.
“Some friends and I wanted to cheer on our teammates, but we didn’t want to spend the time driving back and forth between [South Lyon] and Holland so we got a hotel room and spent the entire weekend here," Beaber said.
“I think it was nice staying overnight in Holland,” said Bonnie Oxner, a parent of one of the swimmers, “ not only did the kids had a fun time staying with each, but staying in a hotel gave the some of the families a chance to spend some time in Holland.”
The seriousness of the meet may have allowed other hotels to get some business. Beaber’s former swim coach, John Burch, actually made hotel reservations in two separate hotels, one for the parents/ spectators and one for the participating swimmers, allowing them to focus on the meet.
Perhaps just getting a large amount of people to the Holland area may have the most important impact. “Just having the meet in Holland is nice because it not only shows of the town of Holland, but for many it’s the first time seeing what the west side of the state, basically we get to show people what our side of the state has to offer." VanSoest said.
The same type of effect was felt in previous locations. In past years the state meet has been held on the campuses of Oakland University, Eastern Michigan and Michigan (Ann Arbor). Although the effects weren’t nessasarily felt through hotels, the host sites had a chance to show off their campuses to a large number of high school students.
Most of the 1200 visitors came from towns outside the western part of the state. Organizers of past division 1 state meets have been reluctant to schedule the meet outside the east side due to the fact that most high schools who are categorized as Division 1 by the MHSAA are located on the east; therefore more schools could save on travel and hotel expenditures.
“Although we realized that most teams came from the other side of the state, we thought that the kids were missing out on some of the experiences that our local teams were having, such as staying in a hotel for example, so we thought we would change things up and see how it goes,” said VanSoest.
In terms of setting attendance records, the meet was a success. It was so popular, workers actually had to stop letting people into the facility at one point.
“It's really not about us or the meet location,” said VanSoest, “It's about doing anything we can do to make this experience the best it can be for the kids, If they had a fun time, I consider this meet a success.
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