Non-MU game struggles to draw fans

Mark Whitehill didn’t think he would have any problem sitting near the floor.

Even though the tickets Whitehill and his son Scott had said Section 206, they walked down the aisle separating sections 112 and 113. Mark Whitehill said he figured he and his son would have no problem taking better seats for the 1 p.m. North Carolina A&T-Army matchup Sunday at at Mizzou Arena. All he saw was a section that had four fans sitting in it, surrounded by row after row of empty seats. On the opposite end of the floor, the student section was entirely empty. In the upper deck, only 10 or so fans sat in the black seats.

“I counted 52 people at the game,” Mark Whitehill said when he walked in. “I think that the teams would have enjoyed having more fans closer to the game.”

However, according to usher Ralph Cox, having the Whitehills sit in Section 112 would have been a violation of athletic department policy. Cox stopped Whitehill and his son, sending them to their ticketed seats.

“I just do what I’m told,” Cox said. “If you let people sit where they don’t belong, it could create a bottleneck.”

Later, Mark Whitehill said he understood the logic, but it didn’t sound like it at the time.

“No wonder y’all get 7,000 fans a game,” he told Cox after being asked to move.

“Even if we see a good play and we clap, the players will get no feedback,” Mark Whitehill said. “It feels more like a scrimmage.”

If the Whitehills clapped, it probably would have echoed. On Sunday afternoon, any sound was audible throughout the arena.

In the first half, Army coach Jim Crews summoned forward Grant Carter off the bench. When he did, the sound of his hand patting Carter’s posterior was easily heard. Trailing by 15 late in the second half, A&T coach Jerry Eaves stood in front of his bench, telling his players on the floor, “Don’t foul.” And he was barely raising his voice.

“We knew there would be no one in here,” Crews said. “I had a room full of guys who cared about the game. It didn’t matter if nobody in the world cared about the game, we did. We feed off ourselves. If we’re dependent on the crowd then were dependent. We’re not dependent on anything except ourselves.”

At times, coaches and players use questionable language. On Sunday, little profanity was audible, but Crews said the lack of noise at Mizzou Arena did not change his language.

“It makes no difference to us,” Crews said. “I’m not really worried about that.”

But, listening closely, one could hear things not usually audible at a game. Whether it was the laughter of some fans or an official explaining a foul to the scorer’s table by saying, “White, 4-5, on the arm,” a fan could have learned plenty about basketball if he wanted to.