MVC home attendance

[Da Coach]

Who said "winning sells tickets"?
Missouri State is one overtime loss away from a perfect season, yet their attendance is 1,129 a game less than last year's woeful last-place team.

Article about the declining attendance at Missouri State-
Wins don't equal crowds
Bears getting it done on the court, but attendance figures still on decline

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20091231/SPORTS040101/912310369/1002/SPORTS/Wins-don-t-equal-crowds

Another articles from the Springfield News-Leader exorting the Missouri State fans to start supporting their team.
MSU Bears hot, but where are the fans?
Give MSU's talented basketball team the support it deserves.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20091231/OPINIONS01/912310325/MSU+Bears+hot++but+where+are+the+fans

Here are the average home attendance stats for each MVC team last year and this year (through Dec. 28 ). There are 5 teams that are down significantly, and look who has the largest dropoff in attendance-
School...............2009-10....2008-09....Diff.
Creighton........... 16,045......15,930....+115
Wichita State......10,303......10,094....+208
Bradley................8,839........9,110....-271
Missouri State.......6,018........7,147...-1,129
Illinois State.........5,525........7,118...-1,593
Southern Illinois....4,904........5,892.....-988
Evansville............4,820........5,863....-1,043
Northern Iowa......4,690........4,212.....+478
Indiana State.......4,661........4,009.....+652
Drake..................3,988........5,101....-1,113

[Nacho]

I'd be willing to bet ISU's figures through Dec 28th of last year was equal or less than this year... it'll be back up to an average of 7000 or 8000 by the time the conference season is over...

Students have only been on campus for ONE game all year (vs. Central Michigan- attendance was 7,080)... and since ISU counts seats in butts for attendance, the students not being around has really hurt...

[Da Coach]

Except for maybe Indiana State, I suspect this will be true for every other MVC team as well. They always draw better once the conference games begin. Indiana State usually doesn't, and this year appears to be headed downward with Jake Kelly's injury.

[Nacho]

Except for maybe Indiana State, I suspect this will be true for every other MVC team as well. They always draw better once the conference games begin. Indiana State usually doesn't, and this year appears to be headed downward with Jake Kelly's injury.

I would tend to agree...

[bu fan 9]

A lot of people our out of work and don't have the money to take the family to the game right now.

[Phantom]

As was mentioned above, to be fair to all teams you can't really put a full season's averages up against the current half season's averages and get an accurate comparison. The current averages will obviously change for everyone.

Just looking at us as an example, last season we averaged 7,118 per game for the whole season...but we averaged 8,587 per conference game. That right there shows how much our non-con home games dragged our avg attendance number down. If our conference opener the other night was any indication, then it'll likely be a similar trend this year. Probably for most if not all other valley teams as well.