Facilities and Arena discussion

[GMU_Polevaulter]

"Mason will never get go over the hump if they have to start over every year. The program needs continuity to get back to the NCAA and the fans need to pay to play."

What make us think Mason fans will pay? All we did after getting to a Final 4 was lose a coach, start a slow decline, move to a higher level conference, and languish in the middle. Attendance has declined since 2006, and keeps declining in spite of Tony's amazing effort to makes us a factor in the A10.

The real question is are we just throwing good money after bad? What if we raise prices and even fewer folks come? What happens 3-4 years from now if Mason finds itself in the same situation (still not enough money to buy a competitive team) and we have driven away the low end of the fan base? What happens when the Sugar Daddy who Mason has been searching for forever, never comes? What makes us think our ability to compete in the "New NCAA World" will be any better then than it is today?

Hate to be the one to say it, but I hope there is a plan B at Mason Athletics that includes things like: Keeping an eye out for a conference that may be a better fiscal fit, being an active participant in planning the inevitable split of the NCAA between the big NIL teams and the non-NIL teams, and having a team thinking about how to be the most competitive if/when that day comes, etc.

I may be wrong about this, and I'd happily admit to being so if we suddenly start winning the A10 regularly, and start getting 6,000 butts in seats for every game like we did in in 2007, when we were in the CAA. But having been a Mason fan for 40 years, and watched games back in the gym with 250 people, I just want us to be realistic, spend what is likely to continue to be scarce money wisely, and embrace the loyal community rather than focus on fickle high roller

i see price increases in literally everything,
as someone who is retired and living on a pension check and social security i am forced to make choices as to how much I will spend and what i will spend on
but there is a wrong assumption of suppliers that most people will continue to pay as price increases

for "normal" goods if the price increases 10% and the demand drops 10% you still have the same amount of revenue, but at a loss of scale effects
so realistically if prices increase by 10% then demand needs to fall by less than 10% to keep the same revenue.
in addition, the cost structure must also be reduced as to account for the loss of scale effects. For an athletic department this usually means staffing layoffs.

This standard model is not what athletic programs need to follow
1) revenue from empty seats can never be gotten once the game is over
2) less fans in the stands watching a game is bad in multiple dimensions
a) less potential customers for concessions - and they probably have also had a rent increase
b) less fans in the stands for televised games
leading to a decline is quality/value of the game perception;
leading to less TV contract value;
leading to less total team revenues

I hope that the GMU staff has worked thru all of this and has a plan so that it doesn't happen to them.
I am glad that this current athletic department administration has begun to address some of the problems of the past. I just hope they can continue to address these issues as well as the needed NIL issues.

In my opinion, what GMU really needs is 10 $1M per year basketball donors.

You are correct and my opinion above already happened in my section - 114 which was the budget friendly family section. When I became a season ticket holder in 2006 - people in seats all around me. Changes started in 2021/2022 - Family section changed pricing model (fewer seats for the same price) and added seat fees at the same time. Fewer people around me. Seat fees increased and this past year - many games it was a ghost town around my seats.

 

[KAOriginal]

Why we have to do what we do....

 

[jessej]

View attachment 3115
Why we have to do what we do....

GMU operates a multi-use arena of which both men's and women's basketball teams are tenants -
hence the almost 10k seat capacity -

I am willing to bet that the other uses bring in more money to the University than either basketball program

step 1 is getting an arena that is sized for basketball or adding curtains and a new seating strategy to EagleBank Arena

 

[2011WinOverVillanova]

GMU operates a multi-use arena of which both men's and women's basketball teams are tenants -
hence the almost 10k seat capacity -

I am willing to bet that the other uses bring in more money to the University than either basketball program

step 1 is getting an arena that is sized for basketball or adding curtains and a new seating strategy to EagleBank Arena

I don’t necessarily know if putting curtains or tarps up makes any difference for Seton Hall. I think we need a new arena and I would knock down the Johnson center and make a new building in which the student center and basketball arena are in the SAME building.

 

[GSII]

I don’t necessarily know if putting curtains or tarps up makes any difference for Seton Hall. I think we need a new arena and I would knock down the Johnson center and make a new building in which the student center and basketball arena are in the SAME building.

Not in a million years.

 

[KAOriginal]

My point was all that you saw in the video and the mentions of private chefs etc...is at their 25M Basketball Development Center which is NOT part of the Siegel Center.

Argue all day about arena size and curtains and multi use facilities and who makes what. Besides NIL money to players, that's what we are competing against.....and why Mason has to up their revenue game....

 

[MasonSAE4]

I don’t necessarily know if putting curtains or tarps up makes any difference for Seton Hall. I think we need a new arena and I would knock down the Johnson center and make a new building in which the student center and basketball arena are in the SAME building.

It's a fun idea but it's wildly impractical

 

[Mason2006Patriot]

Why cant we have nice facilities too? A lot of the athletic facilities that Mason has was made in the 80s.

 

[gmutom]

My point was all that you saw in the video and the mentions of private chefs etc...

At vcu, there is a fine line between a chef and a cook.

 

[Ben Chwarmer]

I don’t necessarily know if putting curtains or tarps up makes any difference for Seton Hall. I think we need a new arena and I would knock down the Johnson center and make a new building in which the student center and basketball arena are in the SAME building.

I would love a new arena, but the JC is fine imo

 

[GMUgemini]

It's a fun idea but it's wildly impractical

This is what Nova Southeastern has. Granted they’re DII so the arena is only 4,500. But it’s a really nice building: https://www.nova.edu/community/university-center.html

For those advocating for reducing capacity I can’t really tell if you’re trying to be realistic or just lacking ambition. I mean we have sold out the arena at full capacity more than once, with several others in the 8,500-9,000 range when we were good. And this was with largely in-conference teams in the CAA (I think our last UVA home game was near sellout too).

 

[Patriot Blue]

Why cant we have nice facilities too? A lot of the athletic facilities that Mason has was made in the 80s.

Including the logo

 

[Mason2006Patriot]

Why does vcu have better/nicer facilities than us?

 

[mshin5]

I don’t necessarily know if putting curtains or tarps up makes any difference for Seton Hall. I think we need a new arena and I would knock down the Johnson center and make a new building in which the student center and basketball arena are in the SAME building.

What? Why would they put the student center and the basketball arena in the same building? That makes no logical sense

 

[Jack Strop]

At vcu, there is a fine line between a chef and a cook.

Dude... you got the photo all wrong. FIFY...

 

[Jack Strop]

What? Why would they put the student center and the basketball arena in the same building? That makes no logical sense

What does logic have anything to do
with the off-season?