Playing in a small market means that fans of a team have a low willingness to pay for the team's games. Whether that lack of willingness comes from the drawing area having a small population, low per-capita income, lots of other sports alternatives, etc is immaterial. I've argued before that the MU football team can be considered a small market team: small college for D1 standards; small town; close major metro areas but with lots of sports competition. Now we have another reason to believe MU is small market:
The Missouri athletic department devised a new strategy to move Sun Bowl tickets — give ‘em away.
So badly does Missouri want black-and-gold representation Dec. 29 in El Paso, Texas, that it is handing out up to 1,000 free tickets to Mizzou students.
“We recognize we may need to do some things to stimulate our fan base,” Missouri athletic director Mike Alden told The Star on Monday.
But it's not just the students.
MU is selling a Dec. 27-30 bus and hotel package for $100 per student. The alumni association’s Young Alumni bowl tour, with bus transportation from Columbia and Springfield was canceled for lack of interest.
The alumni association’s more expensive deluxe tour — including airfare from Columbia and St. Louis — has been downsized to a Columbia-only departure comprising one plane for 112 people. Additionally, an alumni association spokesman said 32 land-only (hotel, game and onsite activities) packages have been sold, with only five remaining in the association’s inventory.
Athletic department and football officials are right to be concerned. The lack of fans affects bowl bids in future years. I don't blame them for cutting prices. But it's easier when you're being subsidized:
Establishing a value of $40 per ticket, if the school winds up eating merely that cost, 5,000 unsold tickets would be a drain of an estimated $200,000. The drain is actually upon the Big 12 Conference, which not only contracts with seven bowls but also guarantees the minimum ticket commitment for the league representative in each bowl.
No, I'm not going to the bowl game. But I've supported the Tigers in other ways. I've been to three games, two home and one away. I've gotten several games on PPV. I've bought the All Access package and the Yahoo! radio broadcast package. I continue to groom the PowerKids by buying them various souvenirs and taking them to games (PowerKid, the Eldest travelled to two games and PowerKid, the Younger travelled to one game). The PowerFamily travel budget is tight as is the PowerSchedule. I'll watch the game on the telly.