What's being done to save Missouri State's dying men's basketball fanbase?

Kyle Moats often sits in a luxury box alone overlooking Great Southern Bank Arena. Sometimes you'll see the athletics director with his wife or Missouri State President Clif Smart but even they know by now to keep their distance.

Moats is unapologetically ultra-competitive. Anyone who has been around the MSU athletics director when he golfs knows. He'll get mad when things aren't going well. He'll fist bump when he sinks a tough putt. The same goes for if the Bears are playing well or poorly.

On game days, he's there to watch the game.

"I don't make any apologies for that unless someone tells me I have to do something different," Moats said. "That's never been done."

Moats either sits away from others or stands in an empty luxury box. At games this season, he's watched the Bears play on a court surrounded by a sea of empty seats. He's seen fans get up and walk away before halftime when the Bears were getting blown out. He's also watched when the Bears made impressive comebacks after everyone had counted them out.

On good days and bad, those crowds have been getting smaller and smaller. Men's basketball teams aren't competing for championships and games are rarely fun to attend. It's an ongoing problem for Missouri State athletics and seems to only get worse for what's supposed to be the university's marquee program.

Each season, Moats sits down for a conversation about the drop in attendance. Each season, Moats says he wishes he had all of the answers and that he's not going to quit trying to find them.

This season is no different.

"I feel like we can do it," Moats said in a recent hour-long conversation inside his office. "I feel like the people we have here, our staff, are good people that are working their tail off to try and get it done, trying to find the answers. It's not like we're sitting back twiddling our thumbs. I feel like the administration wants that to happen and supports it and I think that will continue.

"I always go back to when I took this job, they said 'Springfield's a basketball community.' OK, well, why is it not a basketball community anymore? That's why I think we can turn it around, because it's a basketball community, right?"

Moats was asked directly about numerous items that have troubled supporters over the years, along with feedback from recent interviews with more than a dozen fans ranging from longtime season ticket-holders to those who elect to watch games from home. He was also asked about the lack of interaction between him and student leaders on campus, the ongoing university president search and his future as the university athletics director.

Moats, who has been at the university since being hired to replace MSU legend Bill Rowe in May 2009, provided a list of marketing updates the university and Missouri State Sports Properties, a Learfield marketing branch dedicated to MSU, developed this year. Among the items include engaging with student leadership to encourage student attendance, lower children's ticket prices, enhance quality giveaways and honor program traditions with several theme nights, among others.

Some of those efforts have been evident, though none have yet staunched the bleeding. Missouri State has established more games with free tickets for children and returned different fan-favorite items during timeouts, like parachute drop giveaways. Better giveaways, like a beach shirt and scarves, have taken place for those who attend and the university had special games to honor Art Hains and the 1999 Missouri State men's basketball Sweet 16 team, among others.

How Kyle Moats said Missouri State is trying to target students

Other initiatives haven't been as clear, at least to the public. The president of the new Missouri State student section organization, Bearpawcalypse, said he's never interacted with Moats but communicates with those at Learfield.

"I think they've had support from (Learfield)," Moats said. "If I thought that me being in every single meeting was going to get 500 kids there, I'd be there every single time. I think (Learfield) is perfectly capable of doing that. But I see where you could say 'administration doesn't have an interest.' But if it's that you have to be there in a meeting, we could have a lot of folks in that meeting. Whether or not that moves the needle, that's what I'm most worried about."

Moats repeated, as he's done over the past decade or so, that the most difficult thing Missouri State wants to do is elevate its student engagement. It's been a topic over several football seasons and continues to be one in basketball. A few rows of standing students at each men's basketball game have become the norm.

There are times when even those few students make a difference during games. In the past month, when Missouri State had wins over the likes of Drake and Belmont, the student section's late-game engagement brought a palpable energy to the arena, spreading into the non-student crowd — which is also smaller than ever before.

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

But when the students aren't there, it's even more noticeable. Home losses to Murray State and Illinois State left the gym feeling hollow. There weren't many students there; then again, they wouldn't have had much to cheer for.

"They elevate the whole crowd," Moats said. "Our fans feed off the students. I think our fans and season ticket-holders would say the same thing, and certainly our team does. Those are the groups that somehow we've got to make a connection with and get them excited about coming to games because it makes a difference."

Moats said a group has met at least three times when trying to find what could attract more students. That group has included those at Learfield and Traditions Council, a student-run group that also encourages student support in athletics and other aspects of student life.

The most successful Moats has seen the student section, he said, was when the group had two leaders and were "gung ho" about athletics. He said, for whatever reason, those students had followers and those who respected them. Moats said the athletics department tried to arm the leaders with anything they asked for to try and get them in the building. He said the university does what it can to help the current student leaders despite there being fewer of them.

Moats doesn't accept that students don't know when games are, as the Bearpawcalypse president suggested. He believes that if a student wants to know when a game is or wants to attend, they're just two clicks away from finding it on their phones or computers. Posters go up in dorms, yard signs are sometimes put on the university's lawn and banners that individual teams might invest in are sometimes seen around campus to try to raise awareness.

"There are some things we can and can't do," Moats said. "I would love to have all their phone numbers so that we can send a text to every single student. I'd love that. I don't think we have the opportunity to do that and I'd love to do that. I would love to be able to do that and say it's game day and give a time and that's it. I think when you don't know the answers to these, which I don't, then it's kinda like a doctor and you try to eliminate the excuses and the causes."

Missouri State fans complain of lack of marketing through the athletics department, Learfield

Students are a focus but that doesn't eliminate the complaints that can be heard from those attending games, along with others who stopped attending several seasons ago.

The athletics department's marketing efforts, including social media exposure, television, billboards and others, have been one target of criticism.

Missouri State Athletics has two marketing arms: Learfield and its in-house marketing staff.

Learfield, the company, is a sports marketing group that represents many universities across the country along with conferences, the NCAA and bowl games. There is a Learfield group in Springfield that is solely dedicated to Missouri State.

The university signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Learfield in 2017 which allows it to represent the school and its licensing program. "Missouri State Sports Properties" was formed by Learfield and serves as the school's multimedia rights-holder.

Learfield's main job for the school, according to Moats, is to seek sponsorships and fulfill those sponsorship agreements. The common fan sees those sponsorships through different interactions on the scoreboard and during the game — one example being the emoji game on the video board that's sponsored by Jimmy John's.

Outside of Learfield, Moats said the university has one full-time employee who handles internal marketing with students. She also works with coaches to see what they would want to do while also placing advertising. Both groups have multiple graduate assistants.

Missouri State's social media presence, or lack thereof, gets called out, as well. Some suggest that's where the younger audience could be reached. The university, and individual teams, have tried to put more emphasis on expanding their reach. There's been some progress but staffing doesn't allow the school to do everything it would like to do.

Moats thinks MSU has come a long way with its social media engagement in recent years but knows it has room to grow. Teams can invest in creators to increase their output, something most is most notable with the baseball account. The athletics department has a video coordinator who has been widely complimented for her work on highlight videos and documentary-style pieces to help promote the athletes and programs.

"I'm still not sure how much of a connection it's making with our students," Moats said. "Are they watching it? Are they seeing it? Do they know? I don't know that. A majority of them don't know because there'd be a little bit more information that they'd know and maybe a little bit more of an embracing of the teams, I would think, if you paid attention to that stuff. That area continues to grow and we just need to continue to have more content. We just can't get enough of it. People are craving more of that stuff."

Fans say there aren't enough opportunities to provide feedback

Moats was surprised to learn that some fans weren't aware of how they might provide feedback — he said he receives plenty of it. Many email him directly, he said, or approach him at different events with their questions or concerns.

He remembered one instance in which multiple people asked about having more programs at basketball games. Moats said he made sure that was done for the following game. He said there were other instances in which MSU took immediate action.

Moats said others receive plenty of feedback as well, especially within the Bears Fund. He said Learfield ran a survey with fans two years ago and that season ticket holders and sponsors have received questionnaires over the years.

"I don't think we're inaccessible at all," Moats said.

Moats' own role as an ambassador and face of Missouri State athletics comes up with fans, as well.

Upon Moats' hiring in 2009, he was given the difficult task of replacing a legend. Rowe, who was the school's athletics director from 1982-2009, was beloved by the community for being as personable as they come to every fan who walked through the door. He continues to be heavily involved in supporting Missouri State athletics to this day.

Topping Rowe as an extrovert was going to be an impossible task for anyone. A problem voiced by many fans has been the introverted traits that Moats has shown — whether at a basketball game, directly communicating with students or shaking hands and attending smaller community events.

"I have been at the Lady Bears' MVC pep rallies and he walks by without even looking at me," one season ticket-holder wrote in a response to the News-Leader's survey. "It is not a large crowd, usually."

A former season ticket-holder added they had never talked to him: "I have even sat in a suite with him on more than one occasion."

"I'm pretty much out there in the public," Moats said. "I think it depends on who you talk to. I think some people would say 'Yeah, I talk to him' and it just depends on who it is. I don't feel like I purposely go out of my way to not talk to people. My job is to show up for events and be at public places.

"But, if that's the case and I don't know who those people are, it goes both ways. I am approachable. I'm not somebody that's not going to want to talk to you. You may not like what I say, but you know."

More: Here's how Missouri State's rivals are filling the bleachers at basketball games

Focus on those who show up, not empty seats

To be clear — fans aren't showing up to Bears games because they want to talk to Moats, just like they didn't show up in the decades before his arrival because they wanted to chat with Rowe. There are bigger contributing factors to the men's basketball fanbase decline and it's Moats' task to figure out solutions.

Forget about free tickets being handed out to church groups, local Boy Scouts or elementary students. It might have been a tactic to get young fans in the door and attempt to build an interest via free tickets in the past but Moats doesn't believe in giving out the product for nothing. Moats said group deals can be made through the ticket office for prices that are affordable to all.

Moats said more study will go into how to improve the product. Rather than staring at the empty seats when he's looking over the arena crowd, he's focused on those who are there.

"I look at the fans and how they're involved in the game," Moats said. "Yeah, we'd like to have more people but I don't look at it as 'Geez, what we have, that's awful. Nobody's there.' I look at it as those who are there because they want to be there and they're fired up and they're excited. They're passionate and they get mad if we lose and they yell and scream at the officials.

"Do I wish we had more of them? Sure. I'm not blaming students. They're the ones, to me, that can bring the energy more so than anybody else to it. It seems to me that when we have better student attendance, the games feel better. It doesn't mean we have more people necessarily but they just feel better.

"We're going to try and put a good product out there, in a good environment and we hope people come and we'll keep working at it. That's all we can do. Is it a concern? It's always a concern to have more. If you don't sell it out, you should have a concern about getting more people in."

Will Missouri State's next president keep Kyle Moats?

Moats' job status will come into question once Smart, the university's president, retires at the end of June.

It has long been believed that as long as Smart was at the university, Moats would be the athletics director.

Missouri State is down to three finalists to replace Smart as president. The roster includes one internal candidate and two from outside the university. Moats said, as of Feb. 9, that he had yet to speak with the two external candidates.

Well-connected observers around the university have noted Smart appears to be campaigning for John Jasinski, the lone internal candidate who Smart recruited as school's provost in 2022. Smart hasn't been shy posting on social media when Jasinski has picked up presidential duties, including when recently leading a university team in Jefferson City.

Smart's campaign won't go unchallenged. Multiple sources close to and within the university told the News-Leader that candidates Roger Thompson, vice president for student services and enrollment management at the University of Oregon, and Richard "Biff" Williams, former Utah Tech president, were seen more favorably by the search committee.

Those who spoke with the News-Leader believe Moats' future as athletics director is most secure if Jasinski gets the job.

"I don't know if I need to sell myself," Moats said. "I think they'll do their due diligence and I'm sure they'll talk to people. I'm not one to do a whole lot of sales pitches. I just put my head down, work hard and do the right thing and either people will recognize it or won't recognize it.

"I've been on the other side of it where I've done pretty well and it doesn't make a difference. They just bring their own person in because they want to bring their own person in. I have no idea in this situation. All I can do is continue to do what I'm supposed to be doing."

Moats has a contract that runs through 2026, and a buyout would cost $185,000 if the university were to cancel it before June 2025. Smart admitted in May 2022, when Moats received a multi-year contract rather than the year-to-year deals he typically had in the past, that the idea was to set the athletics director up so that he would be in a comfortable position after Smart retires.

Moats has done plenty of good as the Bears' athletics director. His track record hiring women's basketball coaches and keeping the Lady Bears among the top mid-majors in the country can't be ignored. Neither can the hiring of Bobby Petrino, which gave the football program a spark it hadn't had in decades — two playoff appearances in football at Missouri State is no small feat. Multiple athletics fields have been renovated on Moats' watch. He's also successfully navigated state funding challenges and helped the athletics department emerge from the pandemic in good shape when many others can't say the same.

The shortcomings exist as well. Ill-advised contract extensions, particularly for Dave Steckel and Paul Lusk, may never be forgiven, much less forgotten, by Bears fans. The inability to connect with supporters and get them into the arena has been an albatross for the better part of the last decade. Other schools Missouri State's size have found some success while the Bears have not, despite their efforts.

If something doesn't change, Missouri State men's basketball's once-proud fanbase will continue to wither.

Moats is keeping his eyes forward.

"I get nervous over a three-foot putt because I'm not putting very well," Moats said. "It doesn't mean that I don't appreciate what I have but that doesn't mean that I'm flipping out about it because that's not the case at all.

"I work hard at what I do and I love doing what I do. I just need to keep working hard and if that's good, then I'm good. If that's not good, I get it. I'm not gonna have any regrets when I walk out of here if I'm told I need to walk out of here.

"Do I wish our teams always did better? Do I wish we always went to the NCAA Tournament? Of course. But, for me personally, we're going to fight hard and we're going to try and get what we can get. Somebody else will make that decision. I can't determine that."

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: Read the rest of our three-part series at News-Leader.com

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

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

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Kyle Moats on Missouri State men's basketball attendance, his future