Jan. 6, 2004
Columbia, Mo. - The University of Missouri's official athletics website, www.mutigers.com, continues to experience outstanding growth in many areas. In the November, 2003 rankings released by the Official College Sports Network (OCSN, MU's web host), Mizzou's website ranked 15th among 144 NCAA properties managed by the company. MUTIGERS.com took in nearly 3.5 million page views in November of 2003, making it the 2nd-highest month in school history for traffic (behind only March of 2003 which saw 3.6 million views).
For the 2003-04 year (running each July through June), MUTIGERS.com is up 83% year-to-date when compared with the 2002-03 season. Thus far in '03-04, the website has 9.8 million page views, up from the 5.3 million during the same time period in '02-03. The 2002-03 season saw a record 16.0 million page views, up from a year-end total of 8.2 million for the 2001-02 season.
Here's a look at the progression of growth of the website since it was launched during the 1998-99 season:
Year Page Views Growth (%) 1998-99 1,401,572 n/a 1999-2000 3,220,818 130% 2000-01 5,430,804 69% 2001-02 8,203,609 51% 2002-03 16,081,211 96% 2003-04 9,846,618 n/a
New features added in the recent past to MUTIGERS.com have included online gear and souvenirs from the Tiger Team Store, as well as online ticketing. The merchandising continues to show great popularity among Tiger fans, as the sales are currently up by around 110% from last season to date. Some of the more popular items this year have been the highlight tape and tee shirt produced and made available on the website shortly after Mizzou's historic upset in football over Nebraska in October.
As the MUTIGERS.com site continues to grow, it is the desire of the department of athletics to keep the majority of the site free to all Tiger fans. In order to provide the majority of the content for free, in the future, it might be necessary to go to a subscription-based fee service for audio broadcasts for Tiger football and basketball games. This is something that has been done recently by several high-profile schools around the country, and Mizzou Athletic officials are currently examining the logistics of a subscription service for broadcasts for the upcoming 2004-05 season. Be sure to stay tuned to MUTIGERS.com for any developments.