Missouri reportedly working to move season opener against South Dakota
Missouri is reportedly working on moving up the date of its season opener.
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According to KOMU 8 News’ Ben Arnet, the Tigers are exploring the possibility of moving their 2023 season opener against South Dakota from Saturday to Thursday. Doing so would require approval from the SEC. Arnet reported that Missouri officials felt like last year’s Thursday opener was a strong success.
The Tigers are currently scheduled to welcome the Coyotes to Memorial Stadium on Sept. 2.
Last year, Mizzou opened against Louisiana Tech on Thursday, Sept. 1, and rolled to a 52-24 victory in front of 47,000-plus fans.
Coach Eli Drinkwitz is entering his fourth season at the helm of the program. In 2023, he’ll seek his first winning season. The Tigers have made back-to-back bowl games but have ended both years in losses to finish 6-7.
After taking on South Dakota, the Tigers will face Middle Tennessee, Kansas State, and Memphis to wrap up nonconference play.
SOURCES: #Mizzou Football is exploring moving the season opener vs South Dakota to Thursday August 31st, pending SEC approval.#Mizzou opened on Thursday for TV last year & felt the move was well-received, guaranteeing a night game & freeing up Labor Day weekend for fans.
— Ben Arnet (@BenArnetKOMU) May 16, 2023
47000 fans and that was a strong showing? How many fans does the mizzou stadium hold? I knew it isn’t one of the bigger stadiums but was thinking it was close to 75k or so.
It holds about 61-62k. Odd that an SEC program would call 47k a strong success.
LSUSMC…At Mizzou with Drink as Head Coach they do consider close to 50,000 fans a rousing success. The Thursday game is about recruiting, nothing else.
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Mizzou has a location problem. Missouri isn’t a very populous state to begin with, but it doesn’t help that the two largest cities, KC and St Louis, are both on the border on opposite sides of the state. People there are just as likely to root for colleges in the next state. I live near KC and there’s just a ton of Kansas and K-state fans around KC. Lawrence, Kansas is only 40 minutes away, while Columbia, Missouri is 2.5 hours away. And with Kansas being a major basketball program (by cheating), it makes them popular. Columbia is a nice little college town, but there’s just not enough people anywhere near central Missouri for anyone to expect 70,000 fans at every game.
Obviously fan interest is a big part of it and Mizzou just simply doesn’t have that kind of prestige. However, I think perspective is important here. Mizzou ranked 35th in the nation in average football attendance, with Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Kentucky all averaging similar numbers to Mizzou. So, while it’s not as impressive as the top tier SEC schools, it’s not as though every other school in the SEC is raking in 80,000 fans either.
Over the last 5 years Mizzou averaged more fans than Miami, North Carolina, Arizona State, Baylor, and even beat Oregon. It would be cool if Mizzou had more fans at games, but it’s not terrible either.
Good homework but i don’t agree with your ideas about Columbia being dis-advantaged in any way
The population of a 30 mile radius around Columbia Missouri is
Over 200,000.
Kansas City and St. Louis are full of loyal Tiger alums, the fact that you don’t know this seriously questions your common knowledge about Mizzou.
Here’s how all of college football has changed. When I first started attending Tiger games junior high kids could afford tickets and lots of us sat on the hill. Bus loads of high school football teams were treated by their boosters. Parking and traffic were somewhat better because campus planning was way way better. Lots of things have been zoned into the athletic facility district that don’t belong there and as expensive as it will be they have to be moved.
Everyone knows that Missouri-Columbia is supposed to be a journalism Supercenter. Can you explain how so many professional journalists have not been focused on sharing the news about Missouri’s most attended events?, but don’t think they are just bad at football promoting, Because Missouri has one of the elite top Wrestling programs in the world. The events are as exciting as athletic events can get, yet the elite journalists are busy designing crossword puzzles ( I guess )
This is purely bad leadership and planning boys. There nothing wrong with Columbia or Tiger athletics
I never said there weren’t Mizzou fans in the cities, you old goat. Do you really think 200,000 is a lot of people? For perspective, the metro population of Atlanta, GA is about 6 million people, which is only an hour away from Athens, GA. You think maybe that helps a little? Put on your thinking cap and mull it over, big guy.
And yes, Mizzou does a terrible job of getting anyone interested in their sports. Though using wrestling as evidence is pretty weak. I would rather throw darts at my own nuts than watch wrestling or volleyball or soccer. Mizzou just needs to win more football games, plain and simple.
@Tiger TD, oh my gosh, go see the best fights in the athletic world at the Hearnes Center, you’re (nuts) if you don’t lol. I am old, lol. But I’m still bagging the highest 100 peaks in North America, and have 20 of Colorado’s highest.
Ok I get your point about Atlanta and I’ve been there to see SEC football. Were you at the Georgia at Missouri game last year? That was probably a sell out in ticket sales. North Dakota at Missouri 4 months away. Grab three of your football pals and make a party out of one or two of these games, if we are one empty seat from a sellout, you and your buds will still have a great time and I’ll buy you a cold one
Tiger TD…If Mizzou went 8-4 you’ll fill the stadium. Victories cure everything.
An opponent’s visiting fan base figures in to the attendance equation, and they’ve decided not to make the trip to Columbia, MO.
The visiting team gets a small portion of seats. What they don’t sell, gets returned to the home team. This is all on Missouri.
“All on Missouri”, true, that’s why 60,000 of us Missourians had such a good time hosting the Georgia Bulldogs last year, for example. We have a super stadium, and great tailgating and a tremendous home schedule every year. Make sure you get here for a game, you’ll have a great time too.
What do the networks pay to get another TV/radio attraction in a time slot since all 130 DI programs can’t squeeze into one afternoon of Sat. TV? If your favorite U doesn’t like the extra money just send it back to Missouri. thanks!
If you can sell tickets at 80% of capacity on top of that !! wow, no brainer.
Now crawl back in your troll caves
Where you are the only ticket buyer
You are so confidently clueless that it’s cute. Keep up the good work.
Oh! Thanks! As soon as this game gets rescheduled on a Saturday we’ll be sure to write you back and apologize for selling you short here.
I believe 62,621 is actual seating capacity, and I think that is permanent seats including club seats. I don’t think this includes the approximately 4500 GA tickets they can sell for the hill and standing room only areas), or temporary bleachers they sometimes add at the top of the hill. That gets you to around or just north of 68K paying fans give or take depending how aggressive they are with GA tickets. Attendance numbers have historically been squishy at best – some include all the players, personnel, workers, press, etc. Mizzou claims its highest attendance was 75,298 back in 1980 against Penn State (this was the first Mizzou game I ever attended), and was when the hill was larger and had seating from the field walls down to field itself – this is where the grassy berm in front of the walls is now… They claim just over 71K in 2014 against Arkansas (smaller hill, no seating in front of wall). Since then they reworked the South end zone and East side, which I think in total reduced the capacity slightly. So it seems about right that 69-70K would be the top end for attendance at Mizzou, maybe a bit more depending who you count and how aggressive you get with GA tickets.
oh well that must be the second smallest stadium in the sec, next to vandy. MSU was pretty small last time I was there but its been a few years. Still I think it was bigger than 60K.
They received funding in 2011 to increase it to 80,000 then after increasing it to 71,000 they decided more money would be made with “premium seating” so they decreased the capacity and added more boxes and such. Faurot Field has held up to 75,298 people. Back in the day, you could just get in and sit on the grass.
South Dakota has a solid football program. I hope Missouri knows what is about to hit them for their opening game. Not gonna be a usual SEC cakewalk opener.
Missouri had Georgia on the ropes with a few minutes left last season.
So did Ohio St but once again, UGA slipped the noose.
True. But Ohio State had a talented QB whereas Mizzou had Mr. NAIA himself, Brady Cook who on his best day as a college player, still couldn’t start for 9 out of ten high school teams in the State of Florida.
Brady Cook has seen steady improvement. And has a lot of talent plus more top end. Don’t confuse teamwork being short of championship with Cooks top end, and Missouri has some quality depth QBs this year also.
Let’s not pretend Missouri is always well prepared for games against unexpectedly tough teams. That Georgia game only applies to that Georgia game.
1/6 of the stadium attendance doesn’t get counted on the grassy hill, Rock M. The plaza above the Rock M gets a lot of traffic from people working the game, none of which buy tickets. Missouri uses a bigger than normal usher army and they are not ticket buyers, Missouri has one of the bigger deeper Press Boxes which starts at a very low level and they don’t buy tickets. I don’t even know how they count the new south end zone complex.
It’s not a small stadium and it’s never less than 75% full so as far as I’m concerned, figures lie and liars figure. I like Vandy’s stadium, I’ve driven down there for games but it isn’t 50% of Missouri’s capacity… and if I’m Vandy, I’m fine with that.
I like that Rock M area of Mizzou’s stadium.
I was there for a Carolina game one time – and while that area was not full – it seemed like a cool place to hang out for a game.
I’ve seen pics before where the grassy area was full and it’s looks good!
Let’s face it there are some stadiums (Carolina is one) where we’re just not going to draw 100,000+ people to a game like the Bamas, Georgias, Michigans and Ohio States of the world. I’m cool with that!
Every time I had the opportunity to attend a Pups-Coots game at Willy-B that place was packed and the crowd was amped. It’s not an easy place to play for opponents…
If it ain’t swayin’, the Coots ain’t playin’, let me tell you. No one does Sandstorm better…
I don’t think they were referring to gate attendance when calling that a strong showing. There aren’t many circumstances where Mizzou is going to draw 50K+ for a game against La Tech or South Dakota anyway. I think the strong showing had more to do with visibility gained by being the only game on a Thursday (or one of few). I don’t know what the TV ratings were… but I suspect they would have been a lot worse if the game was on a Saturday (and likely relegated to the ESPN+ option of SEC network).
Some truth to your ideas here. There is science to this or this much money wouldn’t be wasted by TV professionals.
There will absolutely be people in South Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa, who will tune in on a Thursday for the first opportunity to see 2023 college football between the SEC and Missouri Valley. Yes there will be people who could have watched it on a Saturday but can’t on a Thursday night. But this will be a first chance for a lot of football fans everywhere and especially the middle to middle north of America to see football again. If it’s available all of the Missouri Valley Conf. Footprint and all of the SEC footprint will tune it in for a minute or two just to see how the two programs compare… and if the game stays close it could sell a lot of commercial products to a wide audience. People who don’t see the potential to this event scheduling are not real smart. All it has to do is attract some new fans to SEC and Missouri Valley sports and it will do a lot more than that