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Level of support for Mizzou basketball program is trending down
Posted on 3/17/14 at 1:00 pm
Posted on 3/17/14 at 1:00 pm
Deserved its own thread in my opinion
Some general observations gathered over the season:
-Mike Alden for as many good things he has done at Mizzou may have alienated the Mizzou fans early in the season when he targeted the Antlers for obscene behavior. This rubbed the fans the wrong way, not just the students, but season ticket holders too. When the Antlers were ejected from Mizzou Arena student attendance declined, and keep in mind this was at a time in the season when we were playing our best best basketball. Both students and season ticket holders voiced their obvious displeasure for having the Antlers ejected from Mizzou Arena in consecutive games. The biggest concern is having a traditional powerhouse program like UCLA coming to Mizzou Arena, and having the student section only 1/4 of the way filled , that to me speaks volumes about the way Mike Alden handled this situation. Overall attendance for that game VS. a ranked team was 8,826, which leaves over half the arena empty.
-Throughout the rest of the season as the performance of the team declined attendance progressively got worse , and that is Frank Haith's responsibility for not having a product fans could support.
-After missing out on a NCAA tournament bid, and accepting a bid to the NIT it would have been nice to reward the students/season ticket holders who did stick with the team over the entire season a chance to watch the team play in the NIT without having to pay. Charging students/season ticket holders to watch an NIT game is equated to charging to watch an exhibition game in my opinion. Part of me thinks the reason Haith/Alden were happy to play in the NIT is the additional revenue to be made by having two NIT games at home to make up for lost revenue during the season. If Haith had any decency he would buy a large block of tickets, and give them to fans who are willing to come watch the team play in this game. I'm sorry but Haith/Alden have rubbed me the wrong way this season to the point that I've lost interest in the basketball program altogether.
Some general observations gathered over the season:
-Mike Alden for as many good things he has done at Mizzou may have alienated the Mizzou fans early in the season when he targeted the Antlers for obscene behavior. This rubbed the fans the wrong way, not just the students, but season ticket holders too. When the Antlers were ejected from Mizzou Arena student attendance declined, and keep in mind this was at a time in the season when we were playing our best best basketball. Both students and season ticket holders voiced their obvious displeasure for having the Antlers ejected from Mizzou Arena in consecutive games. The biggest concern is having a traditional powerhouse program like UCLA coming to Mizzou Arena, and having the student section only 1/4 of the way filled , that to me speaks volumes about the way Mike Alden handled this situation. Overall attendance for that game VS. a ranked team was 8,826, which leaves over half the arena empty.
-Throughout the rest of the season as the performance of the team declined attendance progressively got worse , and that is Frank Haith's responsibility for not having a product fans could support.
-After missing out on a NCAA tournament bid, and accepting a bid to the NIT it would have been nice to reward the students/season ticket holders who did stick with the team over the entire season a chance to watch the team play in the NIT without having to pay. Charging students/season ticket holders to watch an NIT game is equated to charging to watch an exhibition game in my opinion. Part of me thinks the reason Haith/Alden were happy to play in the NIT is the additional revenue to be made by having two NIT games at home to make up for lost revenue during the season. If Haith had any decency he would buy a large block of tickets, and give them to fans who are willing to come watch the team play in this game. I'm sorry but Haith/Alden have rubbed me the wrong way this season to the point that I've lost interest in the basketball program altogether.
This post was edited on 3/17/14 at 1:02 pm
Posted on 3/17/14 at 2:18 pm to TigerNick23
TigerNick23,
This years team is almost unwatchable. Not team basketball, poor decision making, no chemistry. Many of the wins were ugly. I don't know how they won 22 games. The fans and students aren't coming out and if I'm not mistaken attendance has been done since moving to the new arena. I don't know the answer but I do know that it is suppose to be entertainment and watching this team is like getting your teeth pulled.
This years team is almost unwatchable. Not team basketball, poor decision making, no chemistry. Many of the wins were ugly. I don't know how they won 22 games. The fans and students aren't coming out and if I'm not mistaken attendance has been done since moving to the new arena. I don't know the answer but I do know that it is suppose to be entertainment and watching this team is like getting your teeth pulled.
Posted on 3/17/14 at 3:51 pm to Stlweir
Add to that Shane Rector and Wes Clark getting arrested for marijuana possession 
Posted on 3/17/14 at 6:30 pm to TigerNick23
You really cannot blame any attendance issues for the UCLA game on him. That game was scheduled and played the same day as the football team made an unexpected appearance in the SEC championship game.
If you were a donor, realistically which would you have attended...
If you were a donor, realistically which would you have attended...
Posted on 3/17/14 at 6:35 pm to Koch Snowflake
If I'm not mistaken the game was moved to earlier time to allow donors traveling time to return home to St. Louis/ K.C.
Posted on 3/17/14 at 7:01 pm to TigerNick23
I think a lot of the people that were in Atlanta would be the same ones that would go to the basketball game if they had been near CoMo.
It is no surprise that interest is going down, what is a surprise is how many fans are amazed we are struggling during our last 2 rebuilding years. Three years ago we had 7 seniors, 1 JR, 1 SO, and 0 commitments. It is nice to see during our rebuilding years we are a tournament team or a bubble team. A lot of schools when rebuilding don't sniff the tournament. It will be interesting to see over the next couple of years if Haith has what it takes to build a great team.
It is no surprise that interest is going down, what is a surprise is how many fans are amazed we are struggling during our last 2 rebuilding years. Three years ago we had 7 seniors, 1 JR, 1 SO, and 0 commitments. It is nice to see during our rebuilding years we are a tournament team or a bubble team. A lot of schools when rebuilding don't sniff the tournament. It will be interesting to see over the next couple of years if Haith has what it takes to build a great team.
Posted on 3/17/14 at 8:07 pm to Tigersessed
His track record says he has a tradition of building NIT teams.
Posted on 3/17/14 at 8:14 pm to TigerNick23
All I can say is that I used to care about Mizzou basketball and I didn't this year. I can't figure out why, it may have something to do with Rant participation or something else. I don't know.
I was a voter in the SECRant Basketball Power Rankings, and I don't know why I had to have a few beers to watch Mizzou like I expected to have beers to watch the other shitty teams in conference, but that happened. Watching a Mizzou game required beer to make it okay to watch. It could be alcoholism, but I don't think so. It's just needing a crutch to watch shitty SEC/Mizzou basketball.
To be honest, I don't care about basketball much anymore and I don't know if I suck for that or if it's just a symptom of SEC membership and that I'm normal.
I wish I knew, because I used to be a big basketball fan.
I was a voter in the SECRant Basketball Power Rankings, and I don't know why I had to have a few beers to watch Mizzou like I expected to have beers to watch the other shitty teams in conference, but that happened. Watching a Mizzou game required beer to make it okay to watch. It could be alcoholism, but I don't think so. It's just needing a crutch to watch shitty SEC/Mizzou basketball.
To be honest, I don't care about basketball much anymore and I don't know if I suck for that or if it's just a symptom of SEC membership and that I'm normal.
I wish I knew, because I used to be a big basketball fan.
This post was edited on 3/17/14 at 8:15 pm
Posted on 3/17/14 at 8:23 pm to TigerNick23
quote:
Mike Alden for as many good things he has done at Mizzou may have alienated the Mizzou fans early in the season when he targeted the Antlers for obscene behavior.
This isn't a major reason for Mizzou basketball's slump. The Antlers are getting in trouble for their own behavior, not because of Mike Alden hating them.
The real problems, as far as I can see are this:
-A mostly awful slate of home games this season (both conf. and non-conf.) that didn't generate much fan interest
-The always present issue of giving donors premium seating at Mizzou Arena, which they never seem to fill and screwing over the average Mizzou fan with nose-bleeds or bleacher seats for students
-Reduced interest in basketball in the SEC compared to the Big 12. The energy and rivalries aren't there anymore. Aside from Kentucky and maybe Arkansas, I don't think most Mizzou fans get too excited about our conference slate.
-Football program's success combined with the buzz created around it by being in the SEC is turning attention, money, and fans away from basketball and putting more focus on football
-Our team has been mediocre to disappointing this season and at times they have been totally unwatchable. There seems to be little energy or passion coming from this year's team.
-The state of college basketball as a whole is abysmal. I think a lot of the blame should be placed on one and dones and the overgrowth of D-1 programs. There are what, 300+ teams? Many of which are a step above an intramural team at a big University.
This post was edited on 3/17/14 at 8:24 pm
Posted on 3/17/14 at 8:41 pm to Mizzeaux
quote:
To be honest, I don't care about basketball much anymore and I don't know if I suck for that or if it's just a symptom of SEC membership and that I'm normal.
I wish I knew, because I used to be a big basketball fan.
I got no answers. I used to be a huge Bama BB fan and am not now. I honestly wish I still was but I cannot will it to be so.
I assume it's a combination of things you mentioned including: (1) SEC membership; (2) Football team that has been successful; (3) Down season(s) in BB relative to past experience; and (4) Modern trend.
Some of it is the SEC membership. We just as a whole really hype FB and don't BB (in a 14 team league we got three teams in the tournament - and one is in the play-in game). I also believe this is the modern trend in college sports. Love the tournament, but it just doesn't seem like much matters if you can't win it (which is realistically 8-12 teams). Having a strong season(s) in FB and relatively down season in BB just presses one down the path.
Posted on 3/17/14 at 8:52 pm to BreakawayZou83
quote:
A mostly awful slate of home games this season (both conf. and non-conf.) that didn't generate much fan interest The energy and rivalries aren't there anymore
Agree, if we're not going to have traditional rivals we need to do something to peek fan interest. Mizzou needs to be scheduling early season tournaments (Coaches vs. Cancer, Maui invitational, Puerto Rico Tipoff, 2k Sports classic, CBE classic in Kansas city . We know the level of competition in the SEC is dreadful, and we have to seek out higher level competition in order to boost tournament resume.
quote:
The always present issue of giving donors premium seating at Mizzou Arena, which they never seem to fill and screwing over the average Mizzou fan with nose-bleeds or bleacher seats for students
Agree, Something needs to be done about donors no showing possibly installing a point system and tracking tickets for donors by scanning them at entrance, and if donors don't show increasing price for season ticket renewal/ decrease in TSF points
Posted on 3/17/14 at 10:25 pm to TigerNick23
The non-con has to to double or triple the number of quality games. While there might be football interest in playing Auburn, Georgia, Alabama and so on, there just is no excitement for me in playing those teams. I suppose playing UK, UF and Arky can be exciting if we're competitive. In the Big 12, even after a shitty non-con, you still had a couple against kU, Tejas, OU, KSU, OSU, Baylor, hell even ISU. In basketball, I'd still get more jazzed up to play any of those teams, no offense to my SEC brethren. And to compound things, we only played UK and UF once.
Posted on 3/18/14 at 12:09 pm to reedus23
TigerNick,
Haith must have read your post. Free tickets to the first 500 students.
Haith must have read your post. Free tickets to the first 500 students.
Posted on 3/18/14 at 1:27 pm to TigerNick23
quote:
If I'm not mistaken the game was moved to earlier time to allow donors traveling time to return home to St. Louis/ K.C.
I left at halftime of the UCLA game and got back to KC just in time for kickoff. No way I'd have made it if I stayed for the whole game.
Posted on 3/18/14 at 6:45 pm to KCMIZSEC
Every coach with a team in the NIT should be fired. Don't you agree?
Posted on 3/18/14 at 6:54 pm to Stlweir
quote:
Every coach with a team in the NIT should be fired. Don't you agree?
Every program that fancies themselves as better than an NIT program...if not fired, yes, their coach should be put on warning. There are obviously some programs that simply aren't that good where making the NIT is a big deal and something to be excited about, if I remember Coach Haith's words correctly.
Posted on 3/18/14 at 9:35 pm to reedus23
I'm disappointed in Haith, I really can't defend him in any way at this point, he's a very poor coach and the players don't respect him.
Posted on 3/18/14 at 9:46 pm to TigerBornTigerBred
This year has been a disappointment, for sure. I want Haith to succeed, but this year was a definite disappointment. And you know we'll have him for at least another couple of years.
Posted on 3/18/14 at 10:20 pm to semotruman
Yeah hes not going anywhere.
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