Thinking ahead: Homecoming 2023

Yossarian

Sixth Man
I thought I’d try to influence the influencers here and discuss ideas to improve the homecoming experience this year. Last year I was disappointed to find a lack of booze in the alumni tent and a shortage of porta johns. Organizers did do a nice job of having kids activities, so I give credit for that.

I’m recommending (I guess to this audience) cash bars in the alumni tent, same or more quantity of kids activities, better food spread, and most importantly, several alumni-only porta johns.

Last year I had to stand in line for 25 minutes with a bunch of students openly smoking crime and dropping plenty of f-bombs in front of my younger son. I think it’s great that students get to have a good time that day, but parents need to be able to keep their kids at a distance from the hippie lettuce festival.

That’s all. I’m off to drive slowly in the left lane for a bit.
 

tblack33

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GIVING DAY 2023
I want to think even further ahead and have two homecomings in 2023. It’s time to move homecoming to the fall, I’m fully onboard that train now. Pick one of our home games against the blind and deaf sisters of the Chesapeake and blow them out by 20 in front of a packed bank. Weather is better in November now anyway. Sets the tone for the students and fanbase as a whole for the whole year. Who does Kaufman have to rub and tug to make this happen?
 
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mkaufman1

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GIVING DAY 2023
I want to think even further ahead and have two homecomings in 2023. It’s time to move homecoming to the fall, I’m fully onboard that train now. Pick one of our home games against the blind and deaf sisters of the Chesapeake and blow them out by 20 in front of a packed bank. Weather is better in November now anyway. Sets the tone for the students and fanbase as a whole for the whole year. Who does Kauffman have to rub and tug to make this happen?
I got no pull so there wouldn’t be any point to rub and tugs from me lol.

it’s not a bad idea, but someone needs to bring it up to whoever runs homecoming which is alumni relations or whatever. Also if you have feedback @Yossarian you need to tell someone from the university.
 
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TweederGMU

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Mason wouldn't buck up the time, effort, energy, money to have 2 Homecomings. But go for it.

The alumni event they would have in the big room in the JC for a few years (prior to Covid) was often good. Good food and drinks, no lines. Easy access to bathrooms. They had limited areas for kids but my friends who attended with their kids never complained.

The problem with the food in the alumni tent, most likely, is that the school has a contract with whomever does the catering so they are handcuffed and at the mercy of what this organization would provide.... guessing Sodexo. So for a mass event, ie. Homecoming, they usually provide standard meal fair: Couple of proteins, salads, veggie options, dessert, etc. Nothing fancy, just stuff to fill up the masses.

Someone from outside the alumni association would have to host a special event and bring in their own foods/caterers in a tent, or area of the parking lot, then they can control their menu and charge whatever they want. Never seen this done at Mason since they have become Hitler over the years with more and more rules... so not even sure they would allow a alumni group or company to setup shop in the parking lot and sell other food. Never seen this done, so they may have a bullshit rule on it. If I was Rocklands or Chic-Fil-A I'd be up there every year slinging grub. Not sure why Brion or Fats never did this over the years.... probably because Mason wouldn't grant it.

With the food truck craze, and mason being so cheap, you would think they would just allow 10-20 food trucks to come in to the parking lot and park around the back perimeter and just sell food that way. Less of a burden on them and the food quality goes way up. Win-Win deal.

But feel free to contact them to discuss Homecoming. But don't bank on the food getting any better. Same ol' mass crap they serve for mass events.


Please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 703-993-8696 or alumni@gmu.edu.
 
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Five Two

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⭐️ Donor ⭐️
I want to think even further ahead and have two homecomings in 2023. It’s time to move homecoming to the fall, I’m fully onboard that train now. Pick one of our home games against the blind and deaf sisters of the Chesapeake and blow them out by 20 in front of a packed bank. Weather is better in November now anyway. Sets the tone for the students and fanbase as a whole for the whole year. Who does Kaufman have to rub and tug to make this happen?
100% agree
 

tblack33

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
Mason wouldn't buck up the time, effort, energy, money to have 2 Homecomings. But go for it.

The alumni event they would have in the big room in the JC for a few years (prior to Covid) was often good. Good food and drinks, no lines. Easy access to bathrooms. They had limited areas for kids but my friends who attended with their kids never complained.

The problem with the food in the alumni tent, most likely, is that the school has a contract with whomever does the catering so they are handcuffed and at the mercy of what this organization would provide.... guessing Sodexo. So for a mass event, ie. Homecoming, they usually provide standard meal fair: Couple of proteins, salads, veggie options, dessert, etc. Nothing fancy, just stuff to fill up the masses.

Someone from outside the alumni association would have to host a special event and bring in their own foods/caterers in a tent, or area of the parking lot, then they can control their menu and charge whatever they want. Never seen this done at Mason since they have become Hitler over the years with more and more rules... so not even sure they would allow a alumni group or company to setup shop in the parking lot and sell other food. Never seen this done, so they may have a bullshit rule on it. If I was Rocklands or Chic-Fil-A I'd be up there every year slinging grub. Not sure why Brion or Fats never did this over the years.... probably because Mason wouldn't grant it.

With the food truck craze, and mason being so cheap, you would think they would just allow 10-20 food trucks to come in to the parking lot and park around the back perimeter and just sell food that way. Less of a burden on them and the food quality goes way up. Win-Win deal.

But feel free to contact them to discuss Homecoming. But don't bank on the food getting any better. Same ol' mass crap they serve for mass events.


Please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 703-993-8696 or alumni@gmu.edu.
I should have clarified, I don’t want 2 homecomings every year, I want them to start having homecoming in the fall starting in 2023.
 

mason89

Starter
Oh wow. That must have been way before my time (1998-2002).
It was that way back as far as the late 80's, early 90's. Pretty good turnouts too. It would be nice now, but not much room for tailgating especially with as big as the school has grown. Maybe we can use the new cricket pitch once/if it's built! :cool:
 

gmubrian

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GIVING DAY 2023
I stopped going into the Alumni association tent a while back. At the risk of angering those in the Alumni organization I suggest everyone do adhoc tailgating instead of the "scripted" tailgate.

I am calling a little BS on the chik-fil-A comment. I brought like 100 sandwiches to the last homecoming for anyone who wanted one for fee and noted on here about it and had very few takers. I resorted to walking around and handing them out to make sure they got eaten. People complained about the cost of paying for a spot for tailgating, so I offered to reimburse anyone for the cost of their slot and zero people took me up on it.

I feel like we have developed a little bit of a lazy approach to our fandom at times and instead just want to complain about it. Tailgating/homecoming is a good example of my point with this. We seem to expect the school to do it all for us instead of making it happen for ourselves. I know Mason cracked down on the booze in the past after one of the events ended up getting classified as a mass casualty event by the county, and then tailgating at Mason got a bad reputation. They have rebooted tailgating and it seems to me to be very reasonable. The organizers have been very tolerant with alcohol. Put it in a red cup and don't make an a$$ of yourself and you won't be bothered.

I suggest everyone try giving the tailgating at Mason a chance again. One step further, we could get a group of spots close to one another at homecoming and have masonhoops.com area of the tailgate. We can pretty much make tailgating what we want it to be (just shy of people getting so drunk that they need medical assistance).
 

TweederGMU

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I stopped going into the Alumni association tent a while back. At the risk of angering those in the Alumni organization I suggest everyone do adhoc tailgating instead of the "scripted" tailgate.

I am calling a little BS on the chik-fil-A comment. I brought like 100 sandwiches to the last homecoming for anyone who wanted one for fee and noted on here about it and had very few takers. I resorted to walking around and handing them out to make sure they got eaten. People complained about the cost of paying for a spot for tailgating, so I offered to reimburse anyone for the cost of their slot and zero people took me up on it.

I feel like we have developed a little bit of a lazy approach to our fandom at times and instead just want to complain about it. Tailgating/homecoming is a good example of my point with this. We seem to expect the school to do it all for us instead of making it happen for ourselves. I know Mason cracked down on the booze in the past after one of the events ended up getting classified as a mass casualty event by the county, and then tailgating at Mason got a bad reputation. They have rebooted tailgating and it seems to me to be very reasonable. The organizers have been very tolerant with alcohol. Put it in a red cup and don't make an a$$ of yourself and you won't be bothered.

I suggest everyone try giving the tailgating at Mason a chance again. One step further, we could get a group of spots close to one another at homecoming and have masonhoops.com area of the tailgate. We can pretty much make tailgating what we want it to be (just shy of people getting so drunk that they need medical assistance).
Agree I prefer to do our own thing for tailgating.... getting up with friends or hardcore fans and tailgate or bar hop or whatever the popular idea was over the past 20 years.

If you are going in to the Alumni tent people need to temper their expectations on what types of "spreads" are being included, especially food. It's food for the masses. But putting in more port-o-johns and creating more bars can easily be fixed.

Ha... I think Fro is frozen in a ditch somewhere over by 123. Just hibernates in a hole and comes out to eat Jollay's leftover Bojangles scraps and skateboard at night during the summer, eluding Mason's finest.
 
OP
Yossarian

Yossarian

Sixth Man
I stopped going into the Alumni association tent a while back. At the risk of angering those in the Alumni organization I suggest everyone do adhoc tailgating instead of the "scripted" tailgate.

I am calling a little BS on the chik-fil-A comment. I brought like 100 sandwiches to the last homecoming for anyone who wanted one for fee and noted on here about it and had very few takers. I resorted to walking around and handing them out to make sure they got eaten. People complained about the cost of paying for a spot for tailgating, so I offered to reimburse anyone for the cost of their slot and zero people took me up on it.

I feel like we have developed a little bit of a lazy approach to our fandom at times and instead just want to complain about it. Tailgating/homecoming is a good example of my point with this. We seem to expect the school to do it all for us instead of making it happen for ourselves. I know Mason cracked down on the booze in the past after one of the events ended up getting classified as a mass casualty event by the county, and then tailgating at Mason got a bad reputation. They have rebooted tailgating and it seems to me to be very reasonable. The organizers have been very tolerant with alcohol. Put it in a red cup and don't make an a$$ of yourself and you won't be bothered.

I suggest everyone try giving the tailgating at Mason a chance again. One step further, we could get a group of spots close to one another at homecoming and have masonhoops.com area of the tailgate. We can pretty much make tailgating what we want it to be (just shy of people getting so drunk that they need medical assistance).
Which event/timeframe was the mass casualty event you mentioned?
 
OP
Yossarian

Yossarian

Sixth Man
I think one of the frustrations I had (and others shared) last year with the event was the poor communication. No one in my group of friends realized it would be a dry event or that food would be spread more thinly. If that’s going to be the case again this year, fine. I’d just hope a more explicit description of what will be offered would be provided when tickets are sold. Manage expectations.
 

gmubrian

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Which event/timeframe was the mass casualty event you mentioned?
Those years are kind of a blur in my memory at this point. I am trying to find it. I don't think it was the same weekend as Fro's infamous skate boarding incident, but it could have been or in recent years after that.
 

gmubrian

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I think one of the frustrations I had (and others shared) last year with the event was the poor communication. No one in my group of friends realized it would be a dry event or that food would be spread more thinly. If that’s going to be the case again this year, fine. I’d just hope a more explicit description of what will be offered would be provided when tickets are sold. Manage expectations.
Perfectly valid criticism. And, I understand that a full-service area would be more to the liking of some. Yeah, the whole alcohol, no alcohol, back to allowing alcohol unofficially hasn't been communicated well. I am just suggesting for those that want a true tailgate experience to do a traditional tailgate. They have made the opportunity for us to do so.

Mason f-ed up the alcohol situation a while back and they are trying to get back to to where it should be. First they banned alcohol. Then they tried to control it by getting a license to distribute alcohol. I believe this overlapped with the mass incident that got them to no longer want to be associated with alcohol.

Right now, though, they are doing it right in my opinion, the way that most other schools do it in my understanding. There is no official support for alcohol, so they aren't serving any. No one is going around looking to stop people from drinking their own alcohol as long as you don't make it obvious. Put it in a red cup and don't get out of control. A little self policing of people in you own group would go a long way to making sure some dipsh!t that drinks more than he/she can handle doesn't, once again, ruin it for the rest of us.
 

GMU79

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Okay, I know this is out of character for an old crabby guy like me, but I remember one night, don't think it was game related, when they had a wet t-shirt contest. My girlfriend refused to participate, but it was rather fun during the short time she allowed me to stay. circa 1977.
 
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