Gopherhole could add an admin or two, give a warning or two, lock a thread or two. They choose not to... Bad business in my opinion but it IS their business so whatever. I think they get alot more traffic if they actually manage some of the "Trolling" and "Grieving" that happens on every single thread. It would improve the brand equity of Gopherhole along with its value and revenue (however small). It would also, by association, better support the U of M athletics program and the Gopher basketball team which would create even more traffic.
Imagine a Gopher basketball fan forum website that was not a cesspool.
Most of what people are trying to ban as trolling is just people disagreeing with them.
For example, I was accused of trolling in the Jack Wilson thread because I talked about him being a bad recruit. All I did was refute points made by other people in response to my thread. To some people, that's "trolling" or "grieving" because it disagrees with their opinion. Personally, I don't care that a group of people think any post that doesn't celebrate all things is trolling, but I've noticed that's group of people demanding more board moderation.
Even on this board, for one of the worst programs in the country, most of the threads are positive. Outside of the Ben Johnson is a Disaster Thread and grading the Gophers thread, the rest are either positive or completely benign. Yet, people are still clamoring for more moderation. It's self-moderated, don't click in that thread and you won't see he vast majority of negative posts.
As far as a business decision, if the men's basketball board banned people for being negative, it would be an awful business decision. It's supposed to be an online version of people talking sports with their friends where some of them are wide-eyed and eager to believe and others are eternal pessimists. If you get rid of the pessimists/realists, you have nothing. This is true with sports talk radio, message boards, and pretty much fandom as a whole.