Interesting new ad campaign from KU

[KCMax]

Gotta be related to Mizzou moving to the SEC.

[kcmetro]

I like it!

[zonk]

like

[Major KC Fan]

Another like here--The KC area has more KU fans by far than that other school, and the entire area has historically been oriented towards the west.

[MoMan]

Seems like yet another embarrassing PR misstep by Kansas. Why on earth would an athletic department swimming in red ink pay to sprinkle billboards throughout KCMO advertising itself as Kansas City's team? Is KU's shrinking enrollment, obscurity in all sports except football, and absence from all conference realignment speculation fueling this silly propaganda campaign? Those billboards certainly smell like desperation.

Another like here--The KC area has more KU fans by far than that other school, and the entire area has historically been oriented towards the west.

Alumni numbers don't tell the whole story when it comes to sports fan allegiances. Over 60% of the area's population lives in Missouri (and that percentage has been historically much higher). Missourians are no more likely to root for "that other school" than Kansans are to root for Mizzou. Football has long been the region's favorite sport, and there's a MU/KU football game at Arrowhead this weekend--check out the number of fans for each school at that game to see where KC's loyalties lie.

[Highlander]

.

[KCPowercat]

Not a fan but unique move by ku. Not sure that it was the mu move that spurred this necessarily was it?

[MoMan]

I went to KU for grad school and it seemed like half the student body was from Johnson County. That's anecdotal but a much smaller part of eastern Jackson County and KC north of the river goes to Missouri than the percent of Johnson County kids that goes to KU. My south Kansas City Mo high school had very few people going to MU, most went to Missouri State or NE Missouri State or Central Missouri State. MU is expensive for the working class of Jackson County, more kids end up at the smaller state schools. The big contributor to MU is wealthy St Louis County. I think it's a socio-economic thing; Missouri's part of the metro isn't as wealthy as Johnson County, students go to smaller schools and those that return to the area tend to settle back into the same parts of KC when they graduate. Same on the other side of state line.

At the same time, I am sure KU senses the reluctance of Missourians in the western part of the state, regardless of legacy, to embrace a state university's athletic programs that plays in the far-away and culturally alien SEC. I think that is probably driving the ad campaign as much as anything.

No arguments here, Mizzou is much more expensive, and selective, than the state's other public universities.

College sports fans who are alumni of UMKC, SMS, CMSU, and other large Missouri universities are far more likely to be Tiger fans than of any other Division I school, and there are considerably more alums of those universities in the KC area than there are of the University of Kansas. To claim that KU's larger alumni base in the KC area translates into proportionally greater fan support for KU athletics, as a previous poster stated, is lazy math.

I'm not sure that the petulance shown by KU officials following Mizzou's announced departure is winning the Jayhawks many converts in western Missouri--and the pathetic state of all Kansas sports except basketball isn't exactly enhancing that school's appeal. There are a lot of MU fans who are uncomfortable with the SEC, but just as many if not more were uncomfortable with the the fracturing, dysfunctional Big XII and its increasing focus on far-away Texas. Childish statements by the KU chancellor, AD, and coaches combined with a clumsy propaganda campaign in one of its most pathetic football seasons is no way to win over unhappy or ambivalent sports fans, in KC or anywhere else in Missouri.

[KCPowercat]

MoMan...I don't disagree with you on some of your basic points.....you say it's lazy math which in a way it is.....show us smart math to back up your numbers instead of just ranting and using your thesaurus for adjectives.

[MoMan]

You agreed it was lazy math, and you also said you don't disagree with me "on some of my basic points."

I'm not sure what you're disputing here. Try being less cryptic.

[Highlander]

.

[aknowledgeableperson]

I was a UMKC grad (undergrad)

Just curious. Did the school take away your degree? Did you give it back?

[Major KC Fan]

MoMan just doesn't get it. Nuff said.

[KCPowercat]

Moman.....you posted even lazier math.

[MoMan]

KCPowercat, your posts make as much sense as those of the simplistic poster who claimed that alumni numbers are the best indicator of fan allegiance.

Since you're not being real forthcoming, my best guess is that you curiously want some kind of proof for statements (a) that are self-evident and (b) that you agreed with in an earlier post. Throw me a line, here: Am I getting warmer? Colder?

Please reply in complete sentences uninterrupted by a series of ellipses.

[KCPowercat]

You have no facts behind your rants.....if alumni numbers aren't a good gauge then post numbers that are better indicators.

[MoMan]

Notre Dame is a smallish university. It has far fewer alumni nationwide than larger universities like, say, Purdue.
Notre Dame therefore has a smaller national following than Purdue.

UMKC has more alumni in KC than KU or Mizzou.
Therefore, UMKC basketball has more fans in KC than KU or Mizzou.

Ridiculous, right?

Again, I'll stand by my "rant" that alumni numbers are not the only or the most reliable measure of fan support.

[KCPowercat]

As I stated before, I dont' disagree with you. What I'm asking is for you to provide better factors with stats, not simply rants. How many UMKC alumni are in KC? Back up your "facts".

How about:
- TV ratings
- tickets sold when the local teams play in KC
- # of season ticket holders living in KC

Many factors go into it. As a KSU fan, I believe KU has the most support in the KC metro due to their proximity to the metro, # of alumni, and success of the basketball program being the primary reasons. KSU and MU are well represented probably pretty equally but not as much as KU. That's my observation. I also believe MU will lose more casual fans in KC due to people liking the Big 12.

[mean]

Speaking as a casual fan who occasionally watched college sports (particularly the KU vs. MU border showdown) and rooted for Mizzou, I no longer really give a crap about MU and, as such, my interest in college sports is pretty much nil. I suspect I'm not the only one.

[MoMan]

As I stated before, I dont' disagree with you. What I'm asking is for you to provide better factors with stats, not simply rants. How many UMKC alumni are in KC? Back up your "facts".

How about:
- TV ratings
- tickets sold when the local teams play in KC
- # of season ticket holders living in KC

Many factors go into it. As a KSU fan, I believe KU has the most support in the KC metro due to their proximity to the metro, # of alumni, and success of the basketball program being the primary reasons. KSU and MU are well represented probably pretty equally but not as much as KU. That's my observation. I also believe MU will lose more casual fans in KC due to people liking the Big 12.

Your proposed criteria for measuring fan support wouldn't prove anything you've claimed in your post.

If tickets sold when local teams play in KC were a good measure--and, like the other criteria you cite, it's not--then one could conclude from past MU/KU games at Arrowhead that KC supports Mizzou much more strongly than Kansas. And what were the football TV ratings like for Kansas games this year, and last year, and the year before? How did they compare with ratings for Mizzou, or for Kansas State--the area's distant third favorite team? There are certainly more hardcore KU basketball fans in KC based on their program's on-court success, but football is the region's favorite sport and there are far more Mizzou football fans in KC than Kansas fans.

As far as season ticket sales are concerned, I'm not sure what that would prove. Wealthy people will spend more money on conveniently located sporting events than will less wealthy people on less conveniently located sporting events. KU is a half hour drive from its largest and wealthiest concentration of fans in Johnson County; Mizzou is three times that far from a KC fan base that generally has less disposable income.

Your belief that people like the Big 12, and that the casual fan's affection for a conference composed of fewer and fewer midwestern teams will cause Mizzou to lose support in KC, is equally puzzling. Provide some facts. My observation is that people in this area (Mizzou fans included) want to like the Big 12, but the conference has become too dysfunctional and Texas-centric to be seen as "ours" anymore. Makes more sense to speculate that Mizzou's departure could snuff out whatever residual affection there is for it.