re: Mizzou Baseball Attendance

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Vandy doesn't talk shite about anything

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Apparently you haven't met DD

Okay, so part of the question was whether or not you wanted to know why Mizzou fans are the way they are, or whether you wanted to continue trolling.

There is a reason, and it's being remedied, the SEC move has a lot to do with that. However, I really did sincerely ask because you seemed to be interested and I know you're not a part of the Mizzou alumni.

If you want to know, I can tell you. If you want to continue trolling, that's fine too.

I know trolling, and I think I now people who have a valid point. If you're the valid point guy, I can explain. If you're using it to troll, it's a waste of time.

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I am really not trolling. A big part of the SEC is getting involved in the whole enchilada. I really did go to Rupp to cheer on Mizzou but was appalled by how badly they travelled. I want to give you guys the benefit of the doubt but you keep shooting your own foot and then blaming everybody, the weather, or the distance.

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Cheese, you're just being a dick and that's fine. After most games this year, whether football or basketball, have talked about how Mizzou traveled better than expected.

A cheese dick???

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a) I want to know

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Okay. In 1978, the University of Missouri made the groundbreaking decision to place a woman as the head of a land grant university. The first such appointment in American history. In her wisdom, she decided a great goal of the university was to be the foremost academic university possible. This appointment and decision was quite wise, and has helped our fine institution maintain many of the academic standards we've had in our history. The recent move to growth versus academic status has been detrimental to our maintenance of our position as a premier public university, but I digress.

Ms. Uehling did not support college interscholastic athletics in any way, and this belief survived even beyond her tenure as chancellor. The department was completely cut off from any university support above the bare minimum to sustain it, and was left on the vine to pretty much wither away. Our basketball team managed to survive in some form due to coaching, but was not able to really make any large strides due to the lack of support. The football team's success can very easily be used as a benchmark of Ms. Uehling's tenure. It's a bit delayed, but the lack of support is easily seen.

During this time, there were very few (if any) improvements to athletic facilities, athletics marketing, athletics support, it's the way she wanted it.

Almost every Mizzou athletics program languished under the oversight of the Chancellor. This continued for a while. Mizzou's academic stature went up (which is what a university is for, granted) however, the athletics programs and facilities suffered.

Long story slightly shorter, the entire AD at the University of Missouri was pretty much without support. Football sucked, yet still had decent crowds, basketball did okay/well, but didn't excel under a good coach, and the facilities stayed the same.

She left, and it took a while (and a few presidents) to get the support the athletics department needed to compete in the big 8/12. We got there, but a lot of stuff was left behind. We've not got a chancellor that understands the importance of interscholastic athletics, and supports it. Recent records in major sports can confirm that, but many of the "minor" sports are still suffering from the lack of attention for 15 years.

Either way, for all the students going to Mizzou in the time that the sports programs were a joke, it was merely an activity, not a way of life. It was going to get drunk or talk to friends, it had nothing to do with sports. The teams weren't good, it's about friends.

There is a lost generation of Mizzou sports fans that went to school/learned to love Mizzou during the time the entire department was horrible/okay. These people are 30-45 now. These are the people that have money/time to travel, but they're not in love with Mizzou sports, because the experiences they should have had as students weren't there.

The enthusiasm isn't there for the people with disposable income, because they didn't have the joy or winning when they attended.

That will change as those people get older and the newer generation of students that actually see Mizzou as a winning school move from the student/recent grad age to the Established alum with money age.

This is already too long. that's the jist. I'm sure I missed something.

ETA: How to fix it, I'll start another post if you want, but that's probably enough.

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Grits is a subtle troll.

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I agree. However, he only trolls on that single point. He's not someone talking about meth or some other bullshite. He's been that way for a while. It's all attendance with him.

I just figured I'd take a shot.

We showed up to all of our away football games this past season. Even without winning in the later games.

We do travel. There's just not a lot of people in the "have money with time to travel" segment of our fanbase because of the things I mentioned.

Not to mention the fact that as much as this seems like a decent season because of this NCAA invite, this was a complete disappointment of a season for MU basketball. This season to us wasn't exactly Joker's last year game vs. Vandy for you, but it was bad.

I don't mention the UK/VU game as a troll, I'm just saying it was bad.

You operate under the premise that an SEC team should be happy to go to the NCAAT, because they should. I can tell you, that as happy as we are for this season, it was a complete disappointment compared to where we thought we would be come tournament time.

The smaller schools you mention travel well because they're smaller schools that would go to the Pinstripe bowl if their team was lucky enough to get invited after 10 years of never going to a bowl.

I'll put it in a way that can sound trolly, but isn't.

Nobody showed up to the Kentucky NIT game because they didn't like the team.

Same shite.

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I know this is the big joke, but I really don't get it.

College football has the best players that aren't in the pros. Same with basketball.

Same cant be said of college ball. Every small town with a Wal Mart seems to have a minor league team of some sort. Why is college better? The minor league teams even sell beer.

Is this a "we don't have shite to do around here in spring so let's support our school baseball team" thing or what? I can see the students supporting their team because they're students. I just don't get the alumni making plans to see games unless the team's a winner.

Is it an excuse for alumni to get together and network at a sporting event, or is there a real interest?

I realize this is a non troll/flame question in a troll/flame thread.

I guess I just don't get it.

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In my area (Conway/north-eastern SC) we have Coastal Carolina college baseball: they are typically a top-25 ranked program and play regularly in the postseason. USC had to beat them as a visitor at their Super Regional in 2010 on their way to their first CWS national title.

Coastal's stadium for the most part was pretty small....they would hold something like 800-1200 max with the additions of temporary bleachers for years until 2008 when they were in a annual run of post-season success but couldn't host their own regionals. They expanded capacity then to around 2,200 with upwards of 3K with those bleachers. They typically have average attendance of 1K to 1,500 per game.

This season they are playing their home games at Myrtle Beach while their stadium gets an almost entire overhaul (only the field is retained: everything else is new) that will expand capacity to 5,000 capacity levels with additional berm and outfield wall boardwalk areas for up to 6K capacities. Does anyone at this site know about Coastal Carolina baseball (other than Gamecock fans)?

In Myrtle Beach we also have a high-single A minor league franchise named the Pelicans. They play in what for years was considered a "state of the art" minor league facility Coastal Federal Field, and were among the Carolina League leaders for years in seasonal attendance averages. Coastal Carolina lies just on the outskirts of Conway City limits, and at times has been mistakenly described as residing in Myrtle Beach. That's how close it is...

The Pelicans used to be the Braves high-class A franchise: I remember watching players like Furcal, Giles, Laroche, Francoeur, McCann, Heyward, etc. pass through. Recently the franchise was sold to the Texas Rangers, and I'm not a big fan of them so I haven't attended games there recently...we have a TON of Atl. Braves fans in the area - not so many Rangers fans, so I don't know how popular the team is these days....

SC has zero major level professional franchises: no NFL, NBA, or MLB teams. We have/had a number of minor league baseball franchises over the years.

College baseball begins earlier than MLB does: by April 1st college baseball is halfway through and well into the meat of their conference schedules. Mostly MLB doesn't start heating up for the more casual fans until late spring-early summertime: May, June, July. By then college baseball is pretty much over with...

I've always felt that states with major league franchises do not have as passionate fanbases for it's college sports as others without. Perhaps it's just that states without pro sports can afford to invest more passion into it's college sports. In SC we are pretty passionate about ours, especially baseball.....