COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri football saw a resurgence of a lot of on-field things during the 2023 regular season and more than a few off-the-field intangibles. But nothing was quite as drastically improved as what surrounded Faurot Field on a regular basis: fan attendance.
Mizzou sold out five of its seven true home games, playing in front of maximum crowds against Kansas State, Louisiana State, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. Those consecutive sellouts marked a fan-driven feat not achieved since 1980.
All but one of the Tigers’ home games ending with a black-and-gold-tinged victory certainly helped get fans into seats on a game-by-game basis, though increased attendance runs deeper than just single-game sales.
MU issued more than 35,000 season tickets this season, according to figures provided to the Post-Dispatch under a public records request. The 35,006 season tickets sold or provided is the largest quantity since the 2015 season and reflects continued growth under third-year athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois.
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Of those season tickets, 20,893 were sold to non-students, 10,511 were purchased by students and 3,602 were classified as compensated tickets.
The last time more than 10,000 students purchased season tickets was 2015, when 10,001 did so. The 2023 figure is the highest since 2014’s 10,562 tickets sold to students.
The University of Missouri’s total enrollment for the fall semester was 31,041, suggesting that roughly one-third of the student body bought season tickets.
Drawing students to sporting events has been a priority through the start of Reed-Francois’ tenure.
“We’ve made a real concerted effort to include our students in the game-day atmosphere,” she said before Mizzou’s second game of the season. “We hired a director of student engagement, which was a new position. We go to the fraternities and sororities and student activities. When you have a vibrant student section, they bring energy. And energy attracts energy. They’re critically important to what we do.”
The 20,893 season tickets sold to non-students is the most since 2017. That figure still sits far below the roughly 30,000 non-student season tickets MU regularly sold shortly after it joined the Southeastern Conference in 2012 but remains on an upward trajectory.
Among the changes made at Memorial Stadium to attract fans for the 2023 season were cheaper concession prices and tweaks to game day atmosphere and programming.
“We very intentionally wanted to make the football atmosphere fun again,” Reed-Francois said, “whether it was in-game atmosphere and looking at, â€Hey, should we bring in skydivers? Let’s look at that. Let’s have an opening that is just next level. Let’s make sure our games aren’t overly commercialized.’ We want every single person in this stadium to walk away and say, â€I had a great experience. This is a memory I’m going to remember forever because I shared it with (family or friends).’”
The 2023 season ticket growth built upon increased sales for the 2022 season, too. According to figures provided to the Post-Dispatch roughly two weeks before the start of that football season, 18,859 non-students had purchased season tickets and 5,071 students had done so. Both numbers increased, particularly as students settled into campus early in the academic year.
With 421,184 total fans across all home games this season, 2023 lands as Missouri’s fifth-best-attended single season. That’s up 10.4% from 2022’s 381,677 fans and up 29.4% from 2021’s 325,614.
Mizzou’s growth from 2022 topped the SEC and was among the 11 fastest-growing Power Five programs, according to the athletics department.
Season ticket sales also rebounded in 2023 back above pre-pandemic levels. Memorial Stadium’s capacity was capped around 11,700 for the 2020 season, but MU had sold 26,531 total season tickets — including 6,662 to students — in 2019. That year, which was Barry Odom’s last as head coach, also saw Mizzou’s last sellout before this campaign’s five.
Since joining the SEC ahead of the 2012 football season, MU has now issued 35,000 or more season tickets five times, including 2023. In 2012, it sold 43,896 season tickets, including 11,792 to students. The 2013 and 2014 seasons, both of which took the Tigers to the SEC title game, generated 39,754 and 41,639 sold season tickets, respectively. MU sold 42,376 season tickets for the 2015 season, which was followed by a steep drop-off related to a series of protests that included a football team boycott.
Norfleet named to SEC All-Freshman team
Missouri tight end Brett Norfleet was named to the Southeastern Conference’s All-Freshman team Thursday, an early honor for the Francis Howell product.
Norfleet finished the regular season with 17 catches for 195 yards and three touchdowns. He entered the campaign as one of four possible starting tight ends but emerged as a regular target as the season wore on. In the Tigers’ regular-season finale at Arkansas, Norfleet scored twice in 11 seconds of game time.
He’s Mizzou’s first All-Freshman player since defensive lineman Mekhi Wingo — a De Smet product who subsequently transferred to LSU — made the coach-selected list in 2021.
Three MU tight ends have received All-Freshman honors in the past seven years. In addition to Norfleet, Daniel Parker made the team in 2018 and Albert Okwuegbunam did so in 2017.
