For a small city, I was always surprised at the low fares to/from COU. COU was often priced similarly to STL. It seems to me that a $3 million fund guarantee over 2 years would make up for a $900k/year loss unless that $900k was including a fund guarantee.

Of course, the one time I had a very good reason to fly to COU (the Alabama-Mizzou game), fares into STL were less than half of what they were into COU.