Mizzou Athletics announced an agreement with StatBroadcast Systems July 18 for a new in-game statistics tracking program.
The new system, costing $2,433 annually for three years, will be available for football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, softball, gymnastics and soccer.
“With the SEC Network coming online next year, we wanted to work on a way to get more real time stats updates for more of our sports, more so than football and basketball which had been covered solely by our previous program. So it helps us service the media and fans of a broader range of sports,” Director of Strategic Communications Dave Reiter said.
The service will be free of charge to media and fans. It will provide coverage for all Missouri home events in these sports and on the road, except for football games at Indiana and Mississippi.
“It will allow fans to see real time updates, statistics, as well as play-by-play. It’s another way to follow the game, and it will allow fans and family members to follow along even if they are not able to make it to Columbia,” Reiter said.
In addition, StatBroadcast will be a huge benefit to the media.
“It will help them be more efficient in their jobs. They won’t have to wait for box scores or natural breaks in the game. They will be able to log onto this website on their laptop, while they are there covering and get it just as fast as we can put it in our stat computer,” Reiter said.
Technology has drastically changed how fans are able to connect with sport. Social networking sites like Twitter have allowed fans to gain play-by-play and other information directly from their favorite teams.
“I know the (Denver) Broncos have a twitter account that live tweets games in real time with statistics,” incoming Missouri freshman Katie Armstrong said. “Having technology makes following my teams so much easier because I get information quickly as it’s happening. I think its great that Mizzou is getting an in-game statistics website.”
Despite some the hype regarding the new program, some students are unsure of how it will impact their experience with MU athletics.
“I can definitely see the benefit for the die-hard, statistically driven fans to get up-to-date statistics, but for the majority of the student body who aren’t statistically driven it may provide unnecessary information,” senior Ethan Colbert said. “If you can’t make it to the game, this would definitely be something to use as long as the content stays free. I think this program would be a lot more popular with students and with fans in general if it also allowed for you to view the game and see the statistics at the same time, like maybe a split screen.”
CBS Gametracker will continue to be available to fans and the media, but Tapstats mobile used in previous years for the iPhone and iPad will no longer be accessible. Starting in August, fans and the media will be able access the StatBroadcast system at [MizzouStats.com.](http://mizzoustats.com/)
