MU Players, Fans and Alumni Frustrated by Poor Attendance

The University of Missouri’s athletic department sent an email this morning announcing tickets for Friday’s basketball game are on sale for a discounted price:

"The Mizzou Department of Athletics has announced that upper level tickets for the Men’s Basketball game against Northwestern State are now on sale for $5. Friday’s game (Dec. 2) will be held at 7 p.m. in Mizzou Arena. Also, lower level tickets can be purchased for as low as $15."

Tickets don’t sell for such a low price at schools with high basketball attendance. The Maneater‘s Ryan Hood reported Missouri’s basketball attendance is dramatically poor.

"Attendance figures are dastardly low, as MU is averaging just 6,685 fans per game. Despite boasting the Big 12’s third largest capacity of 15,061, Mizzou Arena has featured the third-lowest attendance figures in the conference thus far."

Missouri guard Kim English posted his frustration with student attendance on Twitter after the Tigers’ 88-59 victory over Binghamton Sunday.

MU junior George Terlep attended the game and said attendance was low Sunday but has been similarly low all year.

“I remember my freshman year you had to get to the games at least 45 minutes early to get in the 10th row or below, and this past game on Sunday we got there 5 minutes before tipoff and were in the front row,” Terlep said. “It’s just been pretty discouraging to see so little support from the students especially. Granted, the game Sunday was at 2 (p.m.) after break, so it’s understandable, but the other games have been similar.”

MU alumnus Micaela Schmiedeskamp said fans of other schools comment on Missouri’s low attendance at televised games.

“My whole family went to Mizzou and it’s really frustrating,” Schmiedeskamp said. “We spent all this money on new facilities for them and they’re playing extremely well. It’s embarrassing as an alumnus who lives outside of Columbia. You don’t understand how much flak we get when it’s on TV and there’s nobody at the game.”

Students used to have to wait in line to get tickets to sit in Zou Crew, the university’s student cheering section, but Zou Crew issued tickets online this year. Zou Crew also used to give attendance points to fans who showed up to non-conference games and award the best seats in the Missouri-Kansas game to fans with the most points. This year, Zou Crew has not done so, and fans have criticized the Zou Crew on its Facebook page.

“As an alumnus, it is embarrassing to me at how little your organization supports our basketball team,” one commenter wrote. “In case you haven’t noticed we have the #13 basketball team in the country and you as the official student cheering section have a chance to make a difference in games. This team deserves your support, not your apathy.”

Terlep said Zou Crew’s changes have contributed to the decrease in attendance.

“People may have been a little harsh, but i do think it’s fair,” Terlep said. “Zou Crew messed up pretty badly two times in my opinion. First was how they did sign-ups online this year; it made lots of people angry and gave tickets to fans that may not even care all that much about going to the games. Second, Zou Crew stopped taking attendance to the nonconference games, which in the past gave students who wouldn’t otherwise go incentive to show up to the games agasint teams that aren’t exactly high-profile.”

Zoulogy attempted to reach Zou Crew for comment, but Zou Crew did not answer three phone calls placed this afternoon.

MU sophomore Justin Wilfer said the poor attendance has been understandable and he expects it to improve soon.

“Well the last one we couldn’t do much about,” Wilfer said. “Everyone was coming back from break, and before that we weren’t quite sure how good we would be after Bowers got hurt. We were kind of figuring out what we’d be like. Attendence should go up now though.”

Schmiedeskamp said students who don’t go to the games will regret it in the future.

“They’re going to get out and they’re going to graduate and they’re going to say ‘Aw man, I wish I had to gone to the games’” Schmiedeskamp said. “It’s part of college.”