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WHAT IS AN “AVERAGE” SIZE MATCH?

We hear a lot involving numbers in our sport such as a shooter had 36.45 seconds for a stage, he loads 158 grain bullets, they are using 4.9 grains of powder, etc. One number that we hear often is that SASS has over 70,000 members.

So, it got me thinking, “What is an average size match?” I know from my travels around the State of Illinois, the larger clubs like Plainfield can exceed over a hundred shooters for a monthly match in the summer months while a smaller club like Chillicothe is lucky to average twenty shooters. But monthly matches have a lot of variables that can and do affect attendance like weather, date, location, other large matches being held, etc. making it difficult to obtain a reliable average monthly match size. However, larger matches like state and regional championships are annual events that are easier to accurately measure.

With that thought in mind, I started gathering data for these large matches. In 2006, there were 44 states that held a state championship. I’m proud to say that for the second year in a row our own Illinois State Championship with 332 shooters was the largest SASS state championship held. At the time this article was written the Hawaii State Champion had not been concluded so their attendance was unavailable. As shown in the table below, an “Average” state championship in 2006 had 159 shooters.

STATE	NAME	SIZE	STATE	NAME	SIZE
IL	Randolph County Ruckus	332	TN	Regulators Reckoning	152
AZ	Bordertown	295	NJ/DL	Purgatory in the Pines	148
FL	The Last Stand	282	AR	Pursuit by Rooster Cogburn	141
MI	Wolverine Ranger Range War	270	NH	Fracas at Pemi Gulch	140
AL	Ambush at Cavern Cove	235	ID	Reckoning at Black Creek	135
TX	Jail Break '06	224	NV	Eldorado	133
MO	Show-Me Shootout	217	WI	Fire in the Hills	131
NY	Helluva Rukus	208	KS	Sunflower State Shoot	131
PA	North Mountain Shoot Out	204	CO	Rocky Mountain Regional Raid	125
MN	Gunsmoke '06	201	OK	Ruckus in the Nations	121
NC	The Uprising	200	LA	Hangin' at Coyote Creek	116
KY	Hooten Holler Round Up	184	WV	Appalachian Showdown	108
MS	Smokin' Guns @ Rabbit Ridge	182	NM	Victorio's Run	95
WA	Westmatch XV	177	NE	Shootout at Flatwater	94
UT	Utah War	176	ND	Peace in the Valley	87
OR	Shootout at Stumptown	168	ME	Stealing the Thunder	80
SC	Shootout at Givhans Ferry	167	MT	10th Annual Montana St. Champ.	74
IN	Hoosier Ambush	165	GA	Ride of Immortals	70
CA	Shootout at Durham Ferry	161	AK	Justin Pierce Memorial	40
OH	Shoot-out at Hard Times	158	IA	Ambush on the Prairie	38
MD	Thunder Valley Days	158	HA	The Great Pineapple Round-Up	UNK
MA	Thunder in the Valley	157	SD	Summer Shoot '06	CANC
VA	Star City Shootout	157	WY	Buffalo Bill's Summer Range	CANC
				AVERAGE	159

How did the larger regional matches fair? Below are the attendance figures for the 2006 SASS Regional matches.

MATCH	NAME	DATE	LOCATION	SIZE
S.E. Regional	Shootout at Mule Camp	5/25/2006	Covington, GA	453
N.E. Regional	Mason Dixon Stampede	9/28/2006	Thurmont, MD	424
High Plains Reg.	Hell on Wheels	6/29/2006	Cheyenne, WY	405
Midwest Reg.	Guns of August	8/10/2006	Middletown, OH	325
New England	The Great Nor'easter	7/27/2006	Pelham, NH	227
S.W. Regional	Showdown at Buck Creek	10/18/2006	Glen Rose, TX	195
N.W. Regional	Shootout at Horse Ridge	7/13/2006	Redmond, OR	178
West Regional	Last Stand @ Chimney Rock	10/5/2006	Apple Valley, CA	146
S.W. Territories	Smoke in the Valley	8/31/2006	Moriarty, NM	76
			AVERAGE	270

So how is our great sport doing? Is it still the fastest growing shooting sport in the nation or has interest and match attendance reached a plateau? Well, judging solely from match attendance it’s impossible to draw a conclusion. The honest answer is that some matches showed growth while others did not. One possible contributing factor may have been the timing of the match. This summer saw record gas prices in some areas of the country which may have prevented some folks attending matches they ordinarily would have attended.

As shown in the following table, nearly half of the state championships saw some growth. Five of the state championships were able to increase their growth between one-third and two-thirds which is remarkable. Conversely, four state championship’s attendance was cut by one-fourth or more. Still, on average attendance at the state championships was up an average of 5%.

2005-2006 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP COMPARISON
STATE	2005 SIZE	2006 SIZE	Pct. Change	STATE	2005 SIZE	2006 SIZE	Pct. Change
Oregon	100	168	68%	Arizona	293	295	1%
Kansas	82	131	60%	Mississippi	182	182	0%
West Virginia	70	108	54%	Pennsylvania	206	204	-1%
Alabama	164	235	43%	Tennessee	154	152	-1%
North Carolina	146	200	37%	Arkansas	145	141	-3%
Idaho	107	135	26%	Michigan	281	270	-4%
North Dakota	69	87	26%	Indiana	171	165	-4%
Maryland	130	158	22%	Ohio	168	158	-6%
Texas	191	224	17%