With Missouri football returning to the Gateway City for the first time in over a decade, the Tigers hope the game will increase fan support, aid recruiting efforts in the St. Louis area and provide a warm homecoming for many players on the roster.
Missouri football will make its first trip outside of Columbia this season on Saturday when the team will face off against Memphis in St. Louis. The game will be played at The Dome at America’s Center, former home of the St. Louis Rams before the team’s relocation to Los Angeles. The last time Missouri football played in the city was in 2010, when the team defeated Illinois 23-10 at the same stadium.
The game was originally scheduled to be played at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, but Missouri paid $1 million to move the game to a neutral site. The week four matchup is part of a partnership between Missouri athletics and the St. Louis Sports Commision as part of the “Mizzou to the Lou” campaign. The campaign also included a soccer game between Missouri and Missouri State on Sept. 10, as well as Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for Missouri’s student athletes.
“The St. Louis region is a key market for us in recruiting, fan engagement and corporate support, and we are looking forward to playing in the dome,” Missouri Director of Athletics Desireé Reed-Francois said. “Finding a unique way to hold events in the city has been a priority for Mizzou athletics.”
The stadium seats up to 66,695 people, around 4,000 more than Faurot Field. Missouri’s undefeated start to the season has seemed to help ticket sales.
According to Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, more than 2,500 tickets were sold for the game in St. Louis in the 72 hours following Missouri’s thrilling 30-27 victory over Kansas State last Saturday.
In addition to increasing fan support, Missouri football also hopes that the trip will aid recruiting efforts in the area. Coach Eli Drinkwitz has emphasized the importance of “locking down the [state] borders” by retaining the state’s best high school football players in Missouri instead of losing talented recruits to other schools.
“[We have to] make sure that young men understand that you don’t have to look anywhere else,” Drinkwitz said in 2020. “[If] you want to play the best football in the country, you can stay right at home and wear that block ‘M’ on your helmet, that Tiger logo on your chest.”
Since Drinkwitz has become the head coach, the coaching staff’s effort has been successful. This past August, Williams Nwaneri, a Kansas City native and the best defensive player in the high school class of 2024 according to 247Sports, committed to play for Missouri. Additionally, now-sophomore wide receiver Luther Burden III is from St. Louis, and was the first five-star player to commit to Missouri in the Drinkwitz era.
Last week, the star receiver spoke about the opportunity to play in his hometown with many of his loved ones expected to be in attendance.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Burden said. “I never played in The Dome, so I’m excited. [There’s] going to be a lot of my family there, I’m looking forward to seeing them, giving them a show, letting them see me play.”
Missouri’s starting quarterback, Brady Cook, is also from the St. Louis area. The sophomore attended Chaminade High School, which is about a 20-minute drive from downtown.
“It’s gonna be awesome. That’s so unique, and I think it’s going to be great for Mizzou as a whole to spread awareness to St. Louis and really keep the buzz going,” Cook said. “That will be cool playing in The Dome, it’s been a while since I’ve been. [I’ve] never played there, that’s for sure.”
If Missouri wins on Saturday, the team will be 4-0 for the first time since 2013, when the team made the SEC Championship game. In that 2013 season, Missouri’s conference schedule began in week five with a road trip to Vanderbilt, just like it will for the 2023 team next weekend. This Saturday’s game in St. Louis will kickoff at 6:30 p.m. CST and be broadcasted on ESPN U.
Edited by Quentin Corpuel | qcorpuel@themaneater.com
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