Why can’t Mizzou sell out its Bragging Rights seats?
One of the hottest sports tickets in St. Louis to obtain on a yearly basis is for the Annual Busch Bragging Rights basketball game between the Universities of Missouri and Illinois.
Illinois edged Mizzou 73-70 in a thrilling contest in front of the usual sellout crowd at the Scottrade Center last week. However, there was something a little different about the full house on this particular night.
There was a little more orange and blue flavor in the house than black and gold. Although the game is played on Missouri soil in St. Louis, there seemed to be a decided edge in numbers for the Illini faithful.
That is not supposed to happen in this rivalry when things are usually split down the middle, but it did.
After the game, Sports Eye learned from several different sources that the University of Missouri actually returned several hundred tickets before the game. That meant that Mizzou could not sell their entire allotment of tickets for the big game. Naturally, the Illini fans scooped them up with the quickness.
This begs a serious question. Why is one school returning tickets for a game that is one of the biggest spectacles of the St. Louis sports scene? In most years, this game is sold out in mere minutes, but not now. Why is that? Quin Snyder isn’t around to kick around any more.
Under the direction of new head coach Mike Anderson, the Tigers entered the Bragging Rights game with a 9-1 record and a renewed sense of purpose and enthusiasm. Anderson has his kids playing hard for 40 minutes with his full-court pressing style of play. Since taking over as head coach, Anderson has travelled all over the Show-Me State, shaking hands, and rallying Tigers fans around a basketball program that had become a national joke during the Snyder era for its on-court ineptitude and off-court shenanigans.
So far, Anderson has done his best to restore credibility in Mizzou basketball with its early-season success. He is also a genuine person who is committed to bring Mizzou back to the top of the college basketball pantheon. A nationally-televised whipping of a good Arkansas team should have been good enough to send waves of black-and-gold faithful downtown to get a ticket.
So why are people giving back tickets for a game that they usually give their right arm to attend? Does the fact that Mike Anderson happen to be black have anything to do with this alarming turn of events? If so, this would be very disturbing and quite disappointing. Even as bad as Mizzou was last year, people showed up in droves just to boo Quin Snyder and dump popcorn on his head.
Tickets for the Missouri-Illinois basketball game should NEVER, EVER be returned because they could not be sold. Mike Anderson is an excellent coach and a good person who will make Mizzou matter once again in college basketball.