Gameday Experience

EXpatriot13

All-Conference
GIVING DAY 2023
I think the Administration needs to do a better job of keeping the students on campus. If they are on campus, they will be more engaged and attend sporting events, They will feel connected to the university and perhaps they will be more likely to donate once they have some money.

How to accomplish this.
1. Take away freshman cars
2. Greek row on campus
3. adequate dinning facilities/hours
4. The police/RAs need to lighten up

I think Fairfax would appreciate this as well. Most adults don’t want to live next to a Frat house.
Agree with a few of your points. A big pain point when I lived on campus was the number of dining facilities and student amenities that closed on the weekend. Not sure if this has changed over the last 5+ years though.

To your second point, I'm pretty sure it's a Fairfax County/Northern Virginia law that doesn't allow for Greek Housing - on campus or not. No more than 4 unrelated people can live within the same house.
 

gmubrian

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
GIVING DAY 2023
Agree with a few of your points. A big pain point when I lived on campus was the number of dining facilities and student amenities that closed on the weekend. Not sure if this has changed over the last 5+ years though.

To your second point, I'm pretty sure it's a Fairfax County/Northern Virginia law that doesn't allow for Greek Housing - on campus or not. No more than 4 unrelated people can live within the same house.
If I recall correctly, Mason doesn't have to follow local building ordinances. I know a Greek row was a goal of the Alumni association at one point. I think it has been shot down from the President down and/or hasn't had enough support.
 

Falco

Hall of Famer
GIVING DAY 2023
Agree with a few of your points. A big pain point when I lived on campus was the number of dining facilities and student amenities that closed on the weekend. Not sure if this has changed over the last 5+ years though.

To your second point, I'm pretty sure it's a Fairfax County/Northern Virginia law that doesn't allow for Greek Housing - on campus or not. No more than 4 unrelated people can live within the same house.
I heard that before too, but I would think a university like Mason would have some lobbying power. They have a decent law program.
 

EXpatriot13

All-Conference
GIVING DAY 2023
If I recall correctly, Mason doesn't have to follow local building ordinances. I know a Greek row was a goal of the Alumni association at one point. I think it has been shot down from the President down and/or hasn't had enough support.
Definitely makes sense! When I was in school, there was a lot of student uproar that the school didn't put Greek Housing where they ended up building all of those employee town homes. Are those all being utilized to their full potential?
 

MasonSAE4

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
To your second point, I'm pretty sure it's a Fairfax County/Northern Virginia law that doesn't allow for Greek Housing - on campus or not. No more than 4 unrelated people can live within the same house.
The school hosted a greek housing forum my senior year (and I used to work with our nationals on housing stuff) so I know a little bit about the situation, unless something has changed dramatically in the past couple of years.

Basically, the four people thing is a real law but it's a myth that it applies to Mason. Mason can do what it wants on its land because it's a state university. Any greek housing would essentially be dorms for select students. The factors stopping a greek row at the moment are A.) the school is concerned 90% of chapters wouldn't be able to fill a house. B.) there are multiple ways to finance greek housing, but most chapters at Mason wouldn't have the money lease/build anything, thus Mason would have to go the UMD route of building the row, owning it, and treating it like specialized dorms where they maintain ultimate control (which then begs the question of how the school would finance it, which is a whole other rabbit hole.) C.) Not a whole lot of good options of where to put it. Campus is pretty packed aside from the surface parking, and West Campus doesn't have the necessary infrastructure to support it at the moment. The only real option would be to spread individual houses all over campus (which would be cool but pretty inefficient.)

There are some other minor concerns like Title IX and the general bad rep greek life has gotten recently but those are smaller problems in comparison to space/money. Happy to continue the talk in the construction thread if there are more questions, don't want to take us down a rabbit hole on this thread.
 

EXpatriot13

All-Conference
GIVING DAY 2023
The school hosted a greek housing forum my senior year (and I used to work with our nationals on housing stuff) so I know a little bit about the situation, unless something has changed dramatically in the past couple of years.

Basically, the four people thing is a real law but it's a myth that it applies to Mason. Mason can do what it wants on its land because it's a state university. Any greek housing would essentially be dorms for select students. The factors stopping a greek row at the moment are A.) the school is concerned 90% of chapters wouldn't be able to fill a house. B.) there are multiple ways to finance greek housing, but most chapters at Mason wouldn't have the money lease/build anything, thus Mason would have to go the UMD route of building the row, owning it, and treating it like specialized dorms where they maintain ultimate control (which then begs the question of how the school would finance it, which is a whole other rabbit hole.) C.) Not a whole lot of good options of where to put it. Campus is pretty packed aside from the surface parking, and West Campus doesn't have the necessary infrastructure to support it at the moment. The only real option would be to spread individual houses all over campus (which would be cool but pretty inefficient.)

There are some other minor concerns like Title IX and the general bad rep greek life has gotten recently but those are smaller problems in comparison to space/money. Happy to continue the talk in the construction thread if there are more questions, don't want to take us down a rabbit hole on this thread.
Great context! Follow up questions likely to come on the construction thread.

Anyone see the student giveaway for Homecoming? They're giving out Patriot and Gunston salt & pepper shakers at the game. What an utterly pointless giveaway for the biggest home game of the year.

I don't want to pile on, but the Homecoming shirts this year are f***** black. Why not gold? Why not green? It's little things like that that add up and do a good job of hurting game day atmosphere.
 

MasonSAE4

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Pretty sure the S&P shakers are a season ticket holder giveaway, not a student one. Seems like an odd thing to complain about.
It's kind of a dumb giveaway regardless. But it's exceptionally dumb on homecoming. Give people something to wear or to wave. Two years ago we got sweet jersey replicas and everyone was wearing them. If you want to do salt/pepper shakers, give it to me against the University of Phoenix in November, not on homecoming.
 

EXpatriot13

All-Conference
GIVING DAY 2023
Pretty sure the S&P shakers are a season ticket holder giveaway, not a student one. Seems like an odd thing to complain about.
The Mason Men's Basketball instagram story clearly states that it's a student giveaway. Regardless though, for the biggest home game of the year you'd hope that the giveaways for any/all fans would, at a minimum, help the gameday experience (i.e. same color t-shirts for ALL fans, rally towels, etc.). These things seem small and pointless to some, but from the perspective of a sports marketer the promotional strategy seems off base and disjointed.
 

99 Patriot

Starter
GIVING DAY 2023
To each their own. Seems like a fun conversation piece that lots of people will put to use in their homes. For those calling them useless, maybe they'll be pre-filled and we can go all WWE on Duquesne and throw salt in their eyes before they shoot.
 

JimP

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
I'm personally very excited about the S&P shakers and look forward to prominently displaying them in our next Mason themed basement (had to sell our house after my location was outed on here).

I'm an out of towner who will be looking to steal S&P shakers from a student, season ticket or mini-plan holder. From what I've seen, each of these groups is eligible for the give away.

Screw the shakers, just deliver a W Mason. Only other game I've attended this year was American - I need to witness a win in person in order to erase that memory.
 
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GMUSig03

All-Conference
I'm an out of towner who will be looking to steal S&P shakers from a student, season ticket or mini-plan holder. From what I've seen, each of these groups is eligible for the give away.

Screw the shakers, just deliver a W Mason. Only other game I've attended this year was American - I need to witness a win in person in order to erase that memory.

You are welcome to my 2nd set
 

Jack Strop

Starter
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Whoooooaaaaa! I gotta hand it to Leesburg Chankenstank III. He not only donated to the Mason Fan Cheer Guide project, he paid a princely, three-figure sum to fund 1,000 copies—the whole enchilada! My Mason Fan HERO!! Thank you!!!

As promised, LC-III receives high adulation, a photo of a sad Mason student in need of fan-transformation, and his hand-written letter of gratitude. The letter was originally hand-written, but unfortunately covered in nacho cheese stains. As I believe LC-III is lactose intolerant, I had to transcribe this student's letter as written below:

Deer Mr. Chickenstank,

I am 4ever greatful 4 ur sponsorship to help a kollege kidd like me. With ur help I nowe I will become a yuuuuuge Mason fan in no time flat. I lern well. My first lessin is to remember to leaf my cell fone at home when I atends Mason baksketbol games.

Thank u sooooooo much 4 ur generositey. Gooooo Patrots!

Luv u, man,

Xxxxxxxx X. Xxxxxxxx [name obscured to ensure privacy]


Awwwwwww! How sweet!

Drunk.jpg


Chank's sponsored student in training for Homecoming.
 

Leesburg Chankenstank III

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Whoooooaaaaa! I gotta hand it to Leesburg Chankenstank III. He not only donated to the Mason Fan Cheer Guide project, he paid a princely, three-figure sum to fund 1,000 copies—the whole enchilada! My Mason Fan HERO!! Thank you!!!

As promised, LC-III receives high adulation, a photo of a sad Mason student in need of fan-transformation, and his hand-written letter of gratitude. The letter was originally hand-written, but unfortunately covered in nacho cheese stains. As I believe LC-III is lactose intolerant, I had to transcribe this student's letter as written below:

Deer Mr. Chickenstank,

I am 4ever greatful 4 ur sponsorship to help a kollege kidd like me. With ur help I nowe I will become a yuuuuuge Mason fan in no time flat. I lern well. My first lessin is to remember to leaf my cell fone at home when I atends Mason baksketbol games.

Thank u sooooooo much 4 ur generositey. Gooooo Patrots!

Luv u, man,

Xxxxxxxx X. Xxxxxxxx [name obscured to ensure privacy]


Awwwwwww! How sweet!

Drunk.jpg


Chank's sponsored student in training for Homecoming.
Chickenstank LOL! It wasn’t much but any little bit helps.

Gonna keep the love train going, Thanks to you, By George, patriot club donors and all other Mason fans who take initiative and try to do something to improve the program instead of just whining, complaining and criticizing (like I do on here).

NOW LETS GET A WIN!!
 

Jack Strop

Starter
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
The Mason Fan Cheer Guide is great for Homecoming, yes, but can we make it FANTASTIC by producing and distributing the flier at the two home games that follow—Richmond and vcyooo?

Leesburg Chankenstank III stepped up, and in a BIG way, to finance the Homecoming effort. To cover the student sections for both the Richmond and vcyooo games I would need a minimum of 1,500 copies. Although, I have yet to request a price quote, I can confidently say the cost would be about $135. Will you step up? Who's the next Mason Fan Hero?

I would need to place the copy order on Monday to avoid rush charges. DM me if you'd like to donate and we will discuss our options. Otherwise send me some cash via PayPal to:

Jack.Strop@oldtowntoastmasters.org

Let's keep the momentum going. A greater fan culture simply cannot evolve over one home game. ~ Cheers!
 

MasonSAE4

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Whoever played that f**king commercial for Mason at the media timeout when we were up 20 and absolutely silenced the crowd should be drawn and quartered. f**k your prosthetic research, play some pump up music and shut the f**k up.
 
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