KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It could very well be the last time that the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas – the longest-standing rivalry west of the Mississippi River – ever meet on the football field. But if ticket sales are any indication, it doesn’t look like too many people really care.
Tickets for Saturday’s Border Showdown at the nearly 80,000-seat Arrowhead Stadium are almost half the price as last year, but KU reports that only around 11,000 tickets for the game have been sold through their ticket office.
MU has reportedly sold around 30,000 tickets for the game.
In 2007, over 80,000 fans filled Arrowhead to watch the Border Showdown, but the total attendance on Saturday could be half that amount.
Poll: Should the MU-KU Border Showdown Continue?
While the ticket sale totals don’t include 2nd party brokers, but even Hal Wagner of Ace Sports & Tickets says that he is seeing the same downward trend.
“We’ve been selling this game for over 20 years now, and we have noticed that sales are definitely down – but that just means that prices are cheaper,” said Wagner, who says that even with the reduced prices, only MU fans seem to be buying tickets. “Everybody wants to sit on the MU side of the field, but I tell everybody it really doesn’t matter because there’s going to be MU fans literally everywhere.”
Wagner says that he hasn’t seen much enthusiasm for the game from KU fans this year.
“KU’s football program is at an all-time low. A lot of KU football fans decided not to go. They are afraid that it’s going to be a lopsided win from MU,” said Wagner. “They don’t want to be there.”
There are several possible reasons for the slow sales – KU’s sorry 2-9 record and winless conference season chief among them. Another reason is MU’s eminent move from the Big 12 Conference to the Southeastern Conference at the conclusion of the season.
Kansas has already said that they have no interest in continuing the rivalry as a non-conference game, making Saturday’s game at Arrowhead the final game ever between the two schools, whose rivalry extends back to before the Civil War.