Athletic ticket sales are important to big schools and little schools alike. At the moment, Springfield’s large, public institution is fighting to climb its way back to prominence, and a small, private Springfield university is basking in the sun.
Bears on the prowlMissouri State University is working to increase ticket sales for its most popular sports, and it took a big step toward turning around declining attendance among its women’s basketball team when it hired a new coach and announced new season-ticket prices on April 10.
The school is implementing a dramatic price reduction in Lady Bears season tickets next season to counteract a six-year trend of falling attendance under former coach Nyla Milleson – a streak unfazed by the team’s move into the $30 million, 11,000-seat JQH Arena in her second year at the helm.
MSU Athletics Director Kyle Moats said the majority of lower-level season tickets would be available in the 2013–14 season for $120, down 54 percent from $259.
He said the steep drop in prices is meant to renew interest in the much-heralded women’s program, which has two NCAA Final Four appearances in its history. In Milleson’s tenure, home-game attendance shrunk by half to 2,606 in 2012–13.
Similarly, men’s basketball attendance has fallen during that same time period, but the overall drop is smaller and there were years of growth in between. In the most recent season, home games averaged 6,080 seats sold per game, a decline of 2.6 percent during the same time frame as Milleson’s stint. However, in the two years men’s head basketball coach Paul Lusk has been at the helm, attendance has fallen significantly. In the season before Lusk took the reins, attendance peaked at an average of 7,595, the most since the Bears went to the Sweet 16 in the 1999–2000 season.
“It’s imperative that we improve attendance in those two sports, and football, as well,” Moats said.
Moats said attendance was a factor in Milleson’s evaluation, and it is also a factor weighed in the evaluations of Lusk and football head coach Terry Allen.
While total attendance at Bears’ football games increased by a couple hundred to 43,549 in 2012, there was one less game played at MSU in 2011. Average attendance in 2012 was 8,710 compared to 10,804 the year before, when the school hit a 15-year high. In 2006, Allen’s inaugural season, the Bears went 2-9 and averaged 10,045 seats filled per game.
Though modifications may be in the works to the men’s season ticket prices for the 2013–14 season, Moats said at $370 for lower-level seats, he feels the price is a value.
“There may be a small tweak with men’s basketball, but it would not relate with seat assessments at the lower level,” Moats said. “Two years ago we were doing really well with no issues at the same price point, and with the team not playing as well last year I think that contributed to (falling attendance) more than anything.”
At $100 per season ticket for football, he said the school doesn’t have any plans to drop prices to draw larger crowds.
With Milleson gone, it seems Lusk may have the most pressure to produce.
“Certainly, men’s basketball is our No. 1 revenue producer, but we look at all of our revenue streams,” Moats said. “It’s all important.”
He said with Wichita State University making it to the men’s Final Four this year, he thinks there could be a renewed interest among local fans in Missouri Valley Conference play, but the real key to growing ticket sales is winning.
“I think we’re going to be better. That’s what we’ve got to get to. We’ve got to get to the point where people are coming out to see us, not because of who we are playing,” Moats said.
Home of the ‘Fanthers’The Drury University men’s basketball program is celebrating its first NCAA Division II national title, as well as the school’s attendance.
The 2012–13 men’s team filled 1,886 seats at home on average. Tickets were up 23 percent since the 2010–11 season, its first year in the 3,100-seat O’Reilly Family Event Center.
Drury Athletics Director Scott Puryear attributes attendance growth to Drury’s student fans.
“Our student attendance has grown exponentially since the Fanthers – our DU student fan group – was formed in 2011–12,” Puryear said via email. “The group won the NCAA’s national Award of Excellence for Game Environment in 2011. Our student section at ‘The O’ seats roughly 220 and is full, along with part of the bleachers, for most big home games, noteworthy given our small university enrollment of 1,600.”
By comparison, MSU’s enrollment is more than 20,000.
Women’s basketball attendance at Drury was down last season but up slightly since its first season at the O’Reilly Center. The ladies averaged a draw of 1,487 in 2012–13, a jump of nearly 10 percent from two seasons back.
Compared to its peers in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the DU support becomes apparent. Last year, the women’s team had almost 800 more seats filled than its closest competitor. Bellarmine University averaged 666 fans per game. The Drury men came in second in Great Lakes average home-game attendance behind Kentucky Wesleyan University’s 2,502.
Puryear said Drury has tried to drum up support through promotional efforts, including “Overflow The O” with $5 tickets and “Throwback Day” with themes dating back to the 1970s and 1980s with uniforms and music.[[In-content Ad]]
