Game 4: GMU (3-0) vs New Hampshire (2-2) on Saturday, November 15, at 2:00 PM.

[tblack33]

I think y’all are way too wrapped around the axel on student attendance, when general attendance sucks even worse. We can’t even get to 50% occupancy with the corners shut down. This isn’t just a student problem, they can’t get any asses in seats. The real long term issue is we need a new, smaller stadium, or a significantly reworked EBA that cuts occupancy by 50+%.

 

[Pablo]

There may have been more students at the concurrent volleyball match yesterday, although many of them left after the 3rd set.

 

[GM Logo Guy]

Ellington reminds me of Greg Calixte with better hands.

 

[MasonFanatic]

Why only $3 million?!?!? Basketball should get nearly 100% of the rev share ($21 million).

The entire athletic department budget is in the range of $35M. It doesn't matter what the revenue sharing cap is, if we don't take in the money then the money doesn't exist to be spent.

 

[FlPatriot]

I think y’all are way too wrapped around the axel on student attendance, when general attendance sucks even worse. We can’t even get to 50% occupancy with the corners shut down. This isn’t just a student problem, they can’t get any asses in seats. The real long term issue is we need a new, smaller stadium, or a significantly reworked EBA that cuts occupancy by 50+%.

We need more investment in marketing. We have 2mm potentials…can’t get 3k…that’s a joke.

 

[GM Logo Guy]

The entire athletic department budget is in the range of $35M. It doesn't matter what the revenue sharing cap is, if we don't take in the money then the money doesn't exist to be spent.

Mason just prefers to pocket the revenue instead of reinvesting in it.

According to the USA Today athletics finances database, GMU had revenue of $35,162,841 in a 2024.

NCAA Finances: Revenue & Expenses by School - USA TODAY

Which are the most profitable college athletic programs in the country? See a ranked listed, including total revenue and expenses. Brought to you by USA TODAY.

sportsdata.usatoday.com

 

[MasonFanatic]

Mason just prefers to pocket the revenue instead of reinvesting in it.

According to the USA Today athletics finances database, GMU had revenue of $35,162,841 in a 2024.

NCAA Finances: Revenue & Expenses by School - USA TODAY

Which are the most profitable college athletic programs in the country? See a ranked listed, including total revenue and expenses. Brought to you by USA TODAY.

sportsdata.usatoday.com

Yes, and you conveniently omitted the fact that the same database cites over $30M in existing expenses (before rev share started). No one is pocketing anything at our level. Most programs break even or lose money.

 

[GMUgemini]

Mason just prefers to pocket the revenue instead of reinvesting in it.

According to the USA Today athletics finances database, GMU had revenue of $35,162,841 in a 2024.

NCAA Finances: Revenue & Expenses by School - USA TODAY

Which are the most profitable college athletic programs in the country? See a ranked listed, including total revenue and expenses. Brought to you by USA TODAY.

sportsdata.usatoday.com

Yes but something like 68% of that is student fees (which to me would be unethical to take student fees and then just use that to pay players).

Second, there are donations earmarked for sports not basketball so that money is tied up.

Third, there is a cap to how much a university can pay out to its athletics department (who knows how long that’s going to last) as part of the house settlement. This has been argued that if the A10 invests right could make us one of the top 3-5 conferences in the country because we don’t have to support football. But it also means a 3 million budget for men’s basketball would make us nationally competitive (at least right now) with any program in the country.

 

[jessej]

Mason just prefers to pocket the revenue instead of reinvesting in it.

According to the USA Today athletics finances database, GMU had revenue of $35,162,841 in a 2024.

NCAA Finances: Revenue & Expenses by School - USA TODAY

Which are the most profitable college athletic programs in the country? See a ranked listed, including total revenue and expenses. Brought to you by USA TODAY.

sportsdata.usatoday.com

in the top 3rd of all D1 men's BBall Programs

unsure why the other A-10 schools are not listed as not all of them are private universities

 

[Pablo]

View attachment 2852
in the top 3rd of all D1 men's BBall Programs

unsure why the other A-10 schools are not listed as not all of them are private universities
View attachment 2853

Actually, the unlisted schools are private.

 

[GMUgemini]

View attachment 2852
in the top 3rd of all D1 men's BBall Programs

unsure why the other A-10 schools are not listed as not all of them are private universities
View attachment 2853

Three-Man-Weave has the numbers for
Everyone but they are old numbers now (I think 2022 or around there), but I doubt anything has shifted too much in the last 3-4 years in terms of everyone’s rank: https://www.three-man-weave.com/3mw/college-basketball-budgets-2022

 

[GMUMiked]

I think y’all are way too wrapped around the axel on student attendance, when general attendance sucks even worse. We can’t even get to 50% occupancy with the corners shut down. This isn’t just a student problem, they can’t get any asses in seats. The real long term issue is we need a new, smaller stadium, or a significantly reworked EBA that cuts occupancy by 50+%.

I don't necessarily agree with this. Students should be the easiest way to get butts in the seats. We have 6k students living on campus, they can attend the games for free and we can't get more than 20-30 students to a game on a Saturday afternoon. I don't know what the solution is, obviously a new smaller arena would be great but is not happening anytime soon. Attendance sucks across the board but students still should be the easiest way to get people in the door.

 

[NewPatriot]

I think y’all are way too wrapped around the axel on student attendance, when general attendance sucks even worse. We can’t even get to 50% occupancy with the corners shut down. This isn’t just a student problem, they can’t get any asses in seats. The real long term issue is we need a new, smaller stadium, or a significantly re

I don't necessarily agree with this. Students should be the easiest way to get butts in the seats. We have 6k students living on campus, they can attend the games for free and we can't get more than 20-30 students to a game on a Saturday afternoon. I don't know what the solution is, obviously a new smaller arena would be great but is not happening anytime soon. Attendance sucks across the board but students still should be the easiest way to get people in the door.

Really??? Only 6k on campus. That means 34k commute or take classes remotely.

That explains why the largest university in the state by far has crappy attendance

 

[GunstonsGhost]

Really??? Only 6k on campus. That means 34k commute or take classes remotely.

That explains why the largest university in the state by far has crappy attendance

And out of the 4OK about 12K are graduate students, so they're probably not very plugged into what's going on around campus.

 

[GMUgemini]

Really??? Only 6k on campus. That means 34k commute or take classes remotely.

That explains why the largest university in the state by far has crappy attendance

21% of total enrollment at the Fairfax campus. That’s not horrible.

For comparison’s sake ASU has 24% of its students living in University owned housing.

vcu is 27%

Hell, Dayton’s entire undergrad enrollment is almost equal to our on campus student population (7,700) and I bet they pull more students to games than we do.

I’d also point out that most commuters if they are traditional students are also commuting from Fairfax or Prince William or Loudoun County and could also easily come to games.

 

[GMUgemini]

And out of the 4OK about 12K are graduate students, so they're probably not very plugged into what's going on around campus.

I wouldn’t necessarily presume one way or another about that. But I also wouldn’t spend any money targeting that population either.

 

[Stoolguy]

GMU just hired a new chief revenue officer/brand strategy from ODU (Joe Rafanelli). This should help but hopefully sooner rather than later! Hopefully he helps with ticket prices too, and focuses on more people in the arena for the long term plan.

 

[jessej]

GMU just hired a new chief revenue officer/brand strategy from ODU (Joe Rafanelli). This should help but hopefully sooner rather than later! Hopefully he helps with ticket prices too, and focuses on more people in the arena for the long term plan.

Hope he figures out that selling tix to Alfred State/D2 opponents/KenPom 300+ teams and vcu at the same price is not a winning strategy

 

[TweederGMU]

I don't necessarily agree with this. Students should be the easiest way to get butts in the seats. We have 6k students living on campus, they can attend the games for free and we can't get more than 20-30 students to a game on a Saturday afternoon. I don't know what the solution is, obviously a new smaller arena would be great but is not happening anytime soon. Attendance sucks across the board but students still should be the easiest way to get people in the door.

Agree.

Would start first with the Fraternities and Sororities on campus - there are like 15 fraternities and 7 sororities plus numerous other service based and minority-based fraternities and sororities. The AD should bring in all of the Presidents of these organizations to a roundtable / focus group in August, or September, and lay out an attendance plan and make it a competition and go all-in here, allocate X amount each year out of our marketing budget to this competition/initiative.

I would go big and offer up a number of like $5K to the fraternity and sorority who has the most attendance throughout the home game season. Every chapter needs money.... if it's a big enough number then these org's will market the games for you amongst their members and really push to get their people at the games consistently.

Thinking each fraternity probably has anywhere from 25-60 guys. Even if they get half of their members to games consistently that will fill up the student section. Sororities usually have anywhere from 50-90 girls in them.... again, get 1/3 of them to games consistently and there you go.

Even put on the calendar.... pick 2 organizations each home game and highlight them during the game. Get the DJ involved, Say hey we have AOPI and Pike in the house today - show members on the big screen and even throw out some interesting facts about their org - famous alumni, what charities they sponsor, etc.

It's time we start highlighting and incorporating the students into making them feel apart of the team and school on a consistent basis and let them know we are a serious bball school - support your freaking teams!

 

[TweederGMU]

Similar concept for the students living on campus. Pick 2 residence halls each game - 1 a 1st year dorm in Presidents Park and 1 Upperclassman dorm - and basically throw a party for them at a home game.

Like the New Hampshire game - we are highlighting Wilson Dorm and Liberty Square residents - give them free pizza before the game, free t-shirt, they get to pick a couple songs for the DJ to play, etc.

See how it plays out, if not great attendance then add-on perks.... Week of free meals at some place on campus, free parking for a month, enter them into winning raffles/money, etc.

Put the calendars online and make signs to plaster around their dorms weeks in advance so they know.