Missouri State basketball games are emptier than ever. What happened, and what's next?

On an afternoon day in 2011, more than 11,000 screaming fans filled the seats at Great Southern Bank Arena. The largest crowd in the history of a proud Missouri State men's basketball program was on hand to witness something the Bears had never done.

With 48.2 seconds left on the clock, Adam Leonard's 3-pointer broke the game's only tie against arch-rival Wichita State. A jam-packed student section — on their feet the entire game — screamed their maroon-painted hearts out as the clock ticked away. Once it hit zero, they rushed to the floor to celebrate the Bears' first-ever Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship.

A Missouri State flag waved over the mosh pit of students as the band feverishly played the fight song on a loop. Streamers and confetti fell from the sky as head coach Cuonzo Martin threw his arms into the air and shouted in victory.

In the 21st century, that afternoon celebration was the height of Missouri State men's basketball.

Fast forward 13 years and nothing has come close to what Bears fans felt in that moment.

What was once looked at as Missouri State's palace at Great Southern Bank Arena at times feels more like a tomb. The echoes of previous celebrations have faded away. Occasionally an exciting game can bring the crowd to its feet but it's only a fraction of what it once was.

Crowds keep dwindling. And dwindling. And dwindling.

Thirteen years after filling the seats and celebrating with over 11,000 screaming fans, the thousands of empty maroon seats filling the arena speak louder than ever and they're saying the same thing:

Missouri State's once-proud basketball program might be at the lowest point it's ever been.

What was once the university's marquee athletics program is in crisis. Many don't care anymore. Others are frustrated. Years of failing expectations, a lack of forward-thinking and poor communication have soured a fanbase that once filled home arenas, no matter what the results were on the court.

There's not one person to blame; it's shared. It's not only on a head coach whose team failed to win at a championship level, administrators who have watched crowds disappear while sitting alone in their luxury boxes or many contributors behind the scenes.

It's a shared guilt that, over time, has turned off many who used to bleed maroon and white.

“It’s the No. 1 thing that we’ve got to get righted,” MSU Athletics Director Kyle Moats said when asked about the decline in ticket sales. “There’s not anybody in our department that doesn’t understand that."

That quote was from eight years ago.

How Missouri State basketball got to this point

Martin threw his hands into the air in victory in 2011 but the energy around the men's basketball program was downhill from there.

Missouri State failed to capture a title at Arch Madness, resulting in a NIT bid. Once again, the Bears were without a trip to the NCAA Tournament that the fanbase had craved since reaching the Sweet 16 under Steve Alford more than a decade before.

Soon after, Martin moved on. Missouri State couldn’t keep Martin from heading to Tennessee, so it turned to Paul Lusk. That didn’t go well.

Lusk fell below expectations year after year and an ill-advised contract extension in between killed any momentum. Even when it appeared Lusk was out the door following his sixth season, the university gave him one more crack at it, leaving the fanbase revolted.

“I would encourage them to hang with us, but if they want to drop out for a year, and come back when we’re winning and back going to the NCAA Tournament, we’ll be happy to welcome them back,” MSU President Clif Smart said in a press conference that still infuriates Bears fans seven years (and still no NCAA trip) later.

The decision, unsurprisingly, didn’t pan out. A drama-filled season ended with the Bears losing eight of their final 10 regular season games. Lusk was fired after the conference tournament. Men's basketball went from averaging 7,595 in the stands during Martin's final season in Springfield to 4,518 the final year under Lusk.

Dana Ford was hired a few weeks later and performance on the court hasn’t been nearly as bad. Missouri State’s had some success, including an NIT bid in 2022, but the Bears haven’t won the big games when needed to secure a championship Ford promised fans on the day he was introduced.

During the ongoing season, the Bears have had some highs but hit the lowest of the lows, losing five of six in front of empty arenas to start the calendar year. They’ve been better as of late but interest in the program continues to fall.

Neither Ford nor Lusk are entirely to blame for the empty seats. Inconsistent play and lack of championships are only parts of the problem.

Even when the Bears have won in recent years, fans failed to show up. The seventh-worst season in the program's history for attendance came amid a 23-win season, under Ford, that saw the Bears play in the NIT.

Interest isn't there when games aren't much fun to go to most of the time.

Missouri State is approaching the worst average home crowd size in program history. The mark will include years played in McDonald Arena and Hammons Student Center; buildings that held a fraction of the audience that Great Southern Bank Arena does.

For the second time in the program's history, Missouri State could end up with fewer than 3,000 fans on average at home games.

The crowd of 3,517 that attended the Bears' loss to Indiana State on Feb. 10 will likely be the largest one they'll have for the remainder of the year. The largest crowd of the 2023-24 season came Dec. 9, when 3,821 attended the Bears' win over Sam Houston. Barring a surprise, this season will be the first year outside the pandemic without a single game with 4,000 or more in attendance since the Bears' final year at McDonald Arena.

"It's usually not the most amped up atmosphere," Indiana State head coach Josh Schertz said ahead of his team's game in Springfield. "You kind of have to bring your own energy."

The building's atmosphere is non-existent during most games, outside of the few when students attend and they're given an entertaining game at the same time. Missouri State has stuck to the same script each game for the past two seasons with entertainment between timeouts and on the video board as well as a rotation of halftime shows and anthem singers.

Missouri State’s lack of gameday atmosphere became an open conversation during the 2022-23 season. Moats said in a summer interview with the News-Leader that the school was aware of its problems and was working toward different solutions. He said convincing more students to attend was going to be a focus.

Moats said in May: "We've already met once or twice and we'll meet more in the offseason and you'll see some different things — probably a lot of different things as we move forward and hope people come out and see what those changes are."

Those changes haven't been evident nor have they made a difference. Students are staying away. The only noticeable change has been the increasing number empty maroon seats, which are proliferating at a faster pace than anywhere else in the league.

Since Missouri State won the Valley in 2011, home attendance has declined 60% — the largest drop of any team in the current iteration of the conference. Almost every school, outside of Southern Illinois, Murray State and Belmont, has seen a drop in home attendance, with Valparaiso being the only other school to drop by more than half.

The fans who remain have made it clear that they're sick of it — they also feel like they're not being heard.

The News-Leader interviewed more than a dozen Missouri State fans, ranging from longtime season ticket holders to those who opt to watch from home. The group included a few former season ticket holders who have since dropped, some who say they won't support the athletics program until changes are made and one who said they are happy with the current direction.

Unanimously, those fans said the university has never reached out to them about their experiences when attending games. Nearly all said they are unaware of any way to provide feedback nor have they had any conversations with Moats regarding their support outside of some saying they've received an occasional "thank you" in passing.

Half of those surveyed said they were in favor of a complete overhaul of the athletics department once Smart, the university's president, retires at the end of June.

Fans continue to support the Bears mainly because they're lifelong fans or attended the university. Half of those interviewed said they had season tickets at one point but have since dropped them.

Everyone asked said they wanted to see the university do a better job at getting students back into the student section. None argued against how much of a difference they make when bringing life into the arena.

Moats said engaging with students and getting them back into the arena has been a priority. A new student organization on campus is currently trying to rebuild what the university once had.

Missouri State's student section organization hit the reset button

Devon Frieze often saw photos of what a packed student section was supposed to look like before he walked down the bleachers to the front row at Great Southern Bank Arena.

In pictures, students stood on their feet deep into the section, not just the one or two rows those who attend take up now. No more than a dozen students were seen on their feet t a recent game.

One photo read “Maroon Madness.” Frieze, one of the few students who make a point to attend every Bears game possible, had no idea what that meant until after he and a group of students reached out to the earlier student organization hoping to try and breathe some life into Missouri State’s student section.

“We just kind of formed a group of people who felt similar,” Frieze, 21, said. “We’re going to show up to anything and everything that we can to get as many people engaged as possible. That’s at the heart of doing it.”

Gone is Maroon Madness, those students decided. The name recognition wasn’t a thing, as it was when Martin helped lead the Bears to an MVC championship in 2011.

The new group of passionate students branded themselves as “Bearpawcalypse.”

“We’re starting from ground zero at this point, honestly,” Frieze, the group’s president said. “I think Maroon Madness did some great things but it’s just gone downhill. Now we need to start somewhere new and go up.”

Frieze and the half-dozen others on the Bearpawcalypse executive board face the challenge of trying to build something from nothing. They’ve had some help from others but mainly have to rely on themselves to create any sort of awareness.

Frieze said he and a group approached the university’s athletics department after last season with ideas about how to improve the gameday environment and try to get more of the athletes’ peers in the seats.

They were redirected to Missouri State Sports Properties, a local Learfield team that collaborates with the university on its marketing, sponsorships and promotion and digital engagement. Danielle Richesin, the athletics department’s director of marketing and promotions, has been their go-to.

Bearpawcalypse members have been able to bounce ideas off Richesin about different giveaways and promotions that might entice students to attend games.

“I do feel like we’ve been supported by them,” Frieze said. “Has the result changed immensely? No, especially for basketball.”

Frieze said there was some communication early in the academic year with Ford, MSU’s men’s basketball coach. Baseball players have been supportive and attended a recent Bearpawcalypse meeting to hand out free tickets. MSU’s soccer teams have also been in their corner, as they had been in recent years with different organizations whether it was Michael Seabolt or Jon Leamy leading the men’s team.

There's been no communication with Moats, the university’s athletics director. The only time Frieze said he’s seen Moats has been when he’s on the court presenting a ball to a sponsor during a men’s basketball game.

“We usually just run things up the chain of command with Danielle,” Frieze said. “There’s a chain of command there but we don’t really have direct contact with the higher-ups.”

The Bearpawcalypse crew has relied on word-of-mouth in its early days. The group formally established itself as a student organization in recent weeks and is happy with the progress — step by small step — so far.

Social media has been a point of emphasis with an active Instagram account. The group has about 700 followers and touts the different giveaways on offer along with calendars and other information.

The university and the athletics department have done very little to promote Bearpawcalypse on social media channels. None of Missouri State’s administrators or the athletic department’s accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, have mentioned it. Only the Missouri State Alumni Association and club hockey team have teamed up with the group on an Instagram post.

“Right now, the outreach is talking to as many people as you can,” Frieze said. “Social media is a big part and it’s been a little difficult in the residence halls. You have to get it approved and get it checked all through some central office. There’s a little more of a process to that but right now, outreach is all word of mouth and socials.”

Frieze believes students on campus don’t know when basketball games take place. Football Saturdays are different, with BearFest Village and a campus-wide atmosphere, but that’s not being replicated for basketball.

When students do make their way to the arena, Frieze and the Bearpawcalypse members head up the bleachers and invite them to stand with those in the first few rows. It’s all about having fun.

They're doing what they can. Frieze desperately wants to make it work but doesn't know what the answers are.

“I don’t think people see Missouri State as a basketball school right now," Frieze said. "You almost need like a Saint Peter’s run to be able to say ‘We’re something’ and ‘Let’s see what they’re worth.’

“I don’t know what the exact answer to it is but we’re just trying to have fun and get as many people involved as possible. That’s the goal; that’s the heart. How that looks, I have no idea. But we have a system set up to where I’m a senior now and we have younger people in the crew that will hopefully keep this going and hopefully bring more people in.”

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL.

Once Proud: Next in this three-part series

Monday: What are Missouri State's more successful rivals doing to increase basketball attendance?

Tuesday: What is Missouri State doing to save its dying men's basketball fanbase?

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Why Missouri State basketball attendance is so low — and what's next