Explaining Mizzou basketball’s attendance ‘spike’ despite empty seats

Missouri boasts the largest increase percentage-wise in the SEC for men’s basketball attendance this season, but that is largely the product of an accounting trick.

The Tigers historically have used a turnstile count — including fans, credentialed media, and game-day and athletics department staff— for its announced attendance.

That changed with the Arizona game on Dec. 10 at Mizzou Arena.

The Tigers started reporting an alternative number, tickets sold, and applied that figure retroactively for the previous nonconference games during 2016-17 a few weeks ago.

Officially, Mizzou ranks 39th in Division I basketball with an average home crowd of 9,643, according to the NCAA’s database.

That’s a 53.2-percent increase compared to last season, when attendance at Tigers basketball games bottomed out at 6,295.

In a statement to The Star, Mizzou Athletics confirmed the change as part of “an ongoing effort to be consistent with best practices both within the Southeastern Conference and nationally.”

The statement continued, “Mizzou Athletics’ goal remains to positively reflect the contributions of its many fans and supporters, and this adjustment aligns with that goal.”

Between 1986-87 and 2003-04, Mizzou annually averaged more than 10,000 fans per game with an average national rank of 24th among all D-I teams during that span.

But last season’s attendance was the lowest since 1977-78, when the average Hearnes Center crowd was 5,948 — and the problem has worsened.

Using a turnstile count, Mizzou’s average “estimated actual attendance” this season — provided on each game’s box score — is 5,251.

That is the Tigers’ lowest rate since the NCAA started tracking men’s basketball attendance 40 years ago and roughly one-third of Mizzou Arena’s capacity.

Switching to reporting tickets sold paints a much rosier picture of Mizzou Arena’s crowds, even if it’s no longer an apples-to-apples comparison.

From an optics standpoint — considering national perception of the program, especially among media and recruits — it’s a savvy change, not a dirty trick.

According to NCAA Statistics Policies and Guidelines, teams are permitted to calculate and report attendance using a “turnstile count, tickets sold or estimates” of the crowd size.

The SEC has no specific policy on reporting attendance, according to a spokesman, so it’s up to each institution.

Before last month, Missouri was in the minority in using a turnstile count. Every SEC school that responded to The Star’s survey about attendance-reporting formulas — eight of the other 13 members — already uses tickets sold.

By that measure, and with a season-ticket base of nearly 9,000, the Tigers will probably finish in the upper half of the SEC in attendance despite the game-day eyesore of empty seats.

Men’s basketball isn’t alone in dealing with attendance issues.

For the sixth straight season, Football Bowl Subdivision attendance declined, drawing the smallest average crowd since 2000, according to research by CBS Sports.

Mizzou was hit particularly hard one year after a player boycott infuriated a segment of its fanbase.

During 2015, the Tigers ranked 23rd in FBS home attendance with an average crowd of 65,120. That number plummeted to 52,236 last season — a drop of 19.8 percent.

The Tigers’ attendance decline was the largest among Power Five programs and seventh-largest overall in FBS.

“It’s something we’re very attentive to,” first-year MU athletic director Jim Sterk said last month in a meeting with reporters.

Mizzou— which has always used tickets sold for reporting football attendance, because there are no turnstiles at Memorial Stadium — averaged fewer than 60,000 per game for the first time since 2006.

It was the smallest average Memorial Stadium crowd since 1996 and ranked 38th in FBS — just behind Iowa State and ahead of Kansas State.

The Tigers’ on-field struggles — a 5-7 season Gary Pinkel’s last before retiring and a 4-8 campaign in Barry Odom’s debut — help explain the attendance issues.

Continuing to repair public-relations damage from the November 2015 boycott, which drew national attention amid racial protests on campus, remains critical for restoring attendance levels.

“Believe me, I know how many are in the seats and out of the seats,” Odom said. “I see it, and I understand that’s part of my job. … Our program needs fans and support, and I look forward to getting it back.”

Odom said he has prioritized “rebuilding relationships across the state,” hoping to win back disgruntled fans.

That’s also been a priority for Sterk since his arrival in August.

“I think we’ve gone from people saying ‘no’ to there’s a little bit of apathy,” he said. “We want to move them to — ‘All right, let’s get you back and we have some great things going on,’ so that’s the process we’re going through.”

Mizzou’s ticket-sales revenue plunged more than $4.27 million last year, a drop of 18.2 percent. Sluggish season ticket sales in football and basketball were to blame.

The Tigers sold 36,954 football season tickets for 2016, which is 8,241 fewer than 2015, and 8,876 men’s basketball season ticket, which is 2,166 fewer than the year before.

Since joining the SEC for the 2012-13 season, Mizzou’s season-ticket sales for football and men’s basketball have dropped 21.0 percent and 28.7 percent, respectively.

To combat declining attendance, Mizzou announced a revenue-sharing partnership Jan. 9 with IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions for enhanced outbound ticket sales.

“We really here historically have not had to worry about that too much,” Sterk said, “but we’ve signed up with them, we have an agreement with them and we’re going to move forward and be aggressively going after” ticket sales.

Winning more would help, too.

“If you win games, people will come,” third-year basketball coach Kim Anderson said earlier this season.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened the last few seasons.

Mizzou football is 9-15, including a 3-13 conference record, the last two seasons and basketball is 24-58 with a 6-37 SEC record during Anderson’s tenure.

“I want to win for (our fans) …,” Odom said. “I want them to have something to support and be proud of. I’ve seen (Memorial Stadium) when it’s one of the best venues that there is at night. I want to get back there.”

This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Explaining Mizzou basketball’s attendance ‘spike’ despite empty seats."