(tl;dr, there's a chart at the bottom. NCAA tournament teams are in bold)
There have been many comments in other threads about whether Mizzou's attendance woes are due solely to several years of losing or whether our fan base is especially apathetic.
I decided to compare Mizzou with three programs that have similar issues as far as not being in major population centers (i.e., many fans have to drive an hour-plus to home games), recent ups and downs and somewhere in our stratosphere historically.
It's tough to find a perfect comparison, but I chose Indiana, Illinois and Arkansas. Obviously Indiana is a historical blue blood, but the Hoosiers had a three-year period of similar struggles to our Kim Anderson era and so are worth a look. Arkansas has a national championship and Illinois has made Final Fours, but I think most Mizzou fans would say they expect those programs to be our peers.
I started with the 2008-09 season, which is in a way cherry-picking, because Mizzou was 31-6 that year and Indiana was awful, but I felt like I needed to include some good and bad years for every school. I also feel like results would be similar if you went back 15 or 20 years.
The results are .... not flattering for Mizzou fans. Those programs' arenas all have bigger capacity than Mizzou Arena, but other than the flash-in-the-pan Michael Porter season, EVERY SINGLE MIZZOU AVERAGE ATTENDANCE was lower than ALL of the other schools on the list. Every year, no matter if Mizzou won 30 games and Indiana won 6 or whatever.
Mizzou has actually been to more NCAA tournaments in this 11-year span than the other schools, and outside of Mizzou's 2009 Elite Eight run and Indiana making two Sweet 16s, none have had any good tournament runs.
Obviously, Cuonzo and company need to win more games, but recent history has shown that even if that happens, Mizzou fans need to step it way, way up if we want to be considered on par with these programs.
(NCAA tournament teams in bold in below chart)
There have been many comments in other threads about whether Mizzou's attendance woes are due solely to several years of losing or whether our fan base is especially apathetic.
I decided to compare Mizzou with three programs that have similar issues as far as not being in major population centers (i.e., many fans have to drive an hour-plus to home games), recent ups and downs and somewhere in our stratosphere historically.
It's tough to find a perfect comparison, but I chose Indiana, Illinois and Arkansas. Obviously Indiana is a historical blue blood, but the Hoosiers had a three-year period of similar struggles to our Kim Anderson era and so are worth a look. Arkansas has a national championship and Illinois has made Final Fours, but I think most Mizzou fans would say they expect those programs to be our peers.
I started with the 2008-09 season, which is in a way cherry-picking, because Mizzou was 31-6 that year and Indiana was awful, but I felt like I needed to include some good and bad years for every school. I also feel like results would be similar if you went back 15 or 20 years.
The results are .... not flattering for Mizzou fans. Those programs' arenas all have bigger capacity than Mizzou Arena, but other than the flash-in-the-pan Michael Porter season, EVERY SINGLE MIZZOU AVERAGE ATTENDANCE was lower than ALL of the other schools on the list. Every year, no matter if Mizzou won 30 games and Indiana won 6 or whatever.
Mizzou has actually been to more NCAA tournaments in this 11-year span than the other schools, and outside of Mizzou's 2009 Elite Eight run and Indiana making two Sweet 16s, none have had any good tournament runs.
Obviously, Cuonzo and company need to win more games, but recent history has shown that even if that happens, Mizzou fans need to step it way, way up if we want to be considered on par with these programs.
(NCAA tournament teams in bold in below chart)
