Murray state sold out on tv

[ptownbraves]

I went to an SIUE/Murray State game in Edwardsville back in 2012. I remember remarking how much yellow there was in the stands. There are probably a decent number of Murray grads in St. Louis, but there were also a lot of Kentucky license plates in the parking lot. They were loud and into the game.

It's not as if fans traveling on the road in the Valley is a thing anyways. You'll see a decent contingent of Bradley fans at Loyola, but a lot of that is Chicago residents who graduated from Bradley.

The biggest shot in the arm would be Arch Madness. I would think Murray State would be one of the better traveling fan bases to that tournament. It would be great if someday they draw enough fans to remove the black out curtains from the upper deck now that Creighton and Wichita fan bases have left.

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

Murray’s home attendance average is now above 4800 and would be 4th in MVC. However they have a worse home schedule than any MVC team too. Home attendance wise they’d fluctuate up and down depending on the season but clearly MVC level.

Murray’s value comes not necessarily in home attendance (though they have an unbelievable environment for big games) but travelling fans. I believe an Evansville beat writer tweeted he’d never seen a team bring so many fans to Ford Center. There were videos online and yellow filled the lower bowl.

Murray likely has a dynamic similar to my alma mater (NIU) but different sport. NIU fans don’t live in DeKalb so attendance there is dicey. However put the game around Chicago on a Saturday and it’s completely different. NIU played at Northwestern in 2014 and outnumbered NU fans in a sellout. It’s similar for Murray State. Most Murray fans aren’t living in Murray. Thus why their claim to fame is travelling in hordes to Nashville or Evansville.

I believe Murray fans would outnumber every MVC school in St Louis. It’s important for any league to have stands filled for games on tv. Murray might not draw well every night, but when the stage gets big they bring it as well as anyone in the region at the mid major level.

[MoneyPower]

Thanks. Good info all. I'm all for bringing a good fanbase back to Arch. Even if I prefer a rich school in a big market, passionate fan bases are where the fun's at. Let's get it done. Hopefully Loyola can continue to build interest in Chicago, and SIU & Bradley can get back to winning.

[VUGrad1314]

Murray State is a brand that resonates with fans throughout the region. They came to Valpo about 5 years ago and it was one of our best attended games at about 4300. Not sure how many of these were Murray fans making the trip up but the name does have drawing power.

[RacerJoeD]

I don’t know either, but probably lots of gold!!

[Murraygrad05]

The St Louis metro area is heavily recruited by our admissions department. I've made quite a few friends from there in my Murray days. Students have also been avoiding SIU like the plague because of the Dunn fiasco so we have seen an increase from that region. It happened to us too when he was at Murray so we understand.

So southern Illinois and southest Missouri is full of alumni and current families of students. Any time in the past we have played SLU it's been a large group of gold at the games. And not only that, we have a large number of alumni in at least 2 other MVC towns, that being Evansville and Cabondale so any games there will have a good turnout.

[RacerJoeD]

So apropos of nothing-

One of the game sponsors of Racer basketball is Ford of Tuscola. (I’ll let the Illinois contingency make sense of that one.)

As an aside it’s appreciated by this Racer fan and when in the market for a vehicle, they will get a call.

[MoneyPower]

So apropos of nothing-

One of the game sponsors of Racer basketball is Ford of Tuscola. (I’ll let the Illinois contingency make sense of that one.)

As an aside it’s appreciated by this Racer fan and when in the market for a vehicle, they will get a call.

Listen, I want to add the Racers but this means literally nothing. A quick Google search would reveal that the owner's son is a QB on the Murray State football team. Hence the sponsorship.

[RacerJoeD]

So apropos of nothing

Yeah I think I covered that lol