Mason beats Shockers!!!

[GMUgemini]

Interestingly Expatriot13, the Patriot Club gives out an award every year for the team with the highest percentage of Alumni-Athlete giving. Here's a link to the past winners (only shows the last 5 years -- or they've only been giving this award for the last 5 years). Baseball won it in 2009 and 2012:

http://www.gomason.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=25200&ATCLID=205097254

 

[EXpatriot13]

Interestingly Expatriot13, the Patriot Club gives out an award every year for the team with the highest percentage of Alumni-Athlete giving. Here's a link to the past winners (only shows the last 5 years -- or they've only been giving this award for the last 5 years). Baseball won it in 2009 and 2012:

http://www.gomason.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=25200&ATCLID=205097254

Ah, nice find. I stand corrected.

 

[gmubrian]

I'm sure that you as well as many other posters would gladly recommend the elimination of wrestling at Mason. Would you be surprised if I told you that wrestling has been successful recently in fundraising and is second to men's basketball in the number of season ticket holders - see http://www.virginiawrestling.com/news_article/show/293412?referrer_id=979505?

Pablo, I am not sure what your goal is. I am assuming it is the typical "get them to name a specific sport so we can get people fired up about it" ploy...

My stance is pretty easy to understand, so why you can't seem to understand it is a mystery. Eliminate the ones that are most expensive to operate after you factor in all the sources of return on your investment. I am well aware of the funding for wrestling. I know the guy personally who has spearheaded the fundraising and put his money where his mouth is. I applaud him for doing so. He is doing something about it. So if the donations that wrestling is getting reduces the net expense of operating it (after factoring all things in, five two's list being a good list of things to consider) to not be one of the most expensive, then it would stay under my way of operating things. I have not named specific sports for elimination as I don't know all the numbers to give an informed opinion.

 

[gmubrian]

I'm told that the Patriot Club hasn't contacted these guys in the MLB for years (which is a topic for a different thread). If true, I'd love to know why. Its not like these players can't be found. if they are in the NL, they are coming to play the Nats and if in the AL, they are coming to Baltimore. anyway.....

My comment was not meant to be a criticism of the former players. It was meant to point out that, for whatever the underlying reason, Mason is not getting the return on the investment in baseball even though we have had a couple fairly successful guys come out of the program. It backs up our point that we need to focus on doing fewer sports better rather than doing more sports poorly.

 

[Pablo]

My comment was not meant to be a criticism of the former players. It was meant to point out that, for whatever the underlying reason, Mason is not getting the return on the investment in baseball even though we have had a couple fairly successful guys come out of the program. It backs up our point that we need to focus on doing fewer sports better rather than doing more sports poorly.

Brian,

Perhaps you missed Gemini's post. But, the baseball program has had the highest percentage of alumni-athlete donations in 2 of the last 5 years. In the other years, the award was given to lacrosse, men's volleyball, & men's tennis.

 

[GMUgemini]

Brian,

Perhaps you missed Gemini's post. But, the baseball program has had the highest percentage of alumni-athlete donations in 2 of the last 5 years. In the other years, the award was given to lacrosse, men's volleyball, & men's tennis.

Ironically enough, these are all sports that would be on most people's chopping blocks (aside from perhaps women's lacrosse for title IX reasons).

I think the ultimate takeaway in this is that the AD has done a poor job getting those major donations, either from our most successful alumni or the business community, which would catapult us to the next level.

As PiKapp's post said, the Patriot Club's goal is to raise $1.15 million this FY. As a comparison, for FY2012 vcu had $2.786 million in contributions (while we brought in $936,000). We are lagging far behind in both the goals we set for ourselves and the contributions we are getting from the community.

 

[EXpatriot13]

Instead of cutting sports right now, maybe we should be cutting ties with people in the administration who clearly are dropping the ball and not getting it done.

 

[gmubrian]

Brian,

Perhaps you missed Gemini's post. But, the baseball program has had the highest percentage of alumni-athlete donations in 2 of the last 5 years. In the other years, the award was given to lacrosse, men's volleyball, & men's tennis.

Pablo, While that is great that they get a high percentage, one dollar gets you credit on that list. Maybe one day that will pan out. The issue is that the ones who could give big money and make a difference because they have made it big in the sport they played at Mason do not seem to be part of that percentage.

I am not arguing to get rid of baseball. If there are significant donations to offset the high expense of baseball, then it is one too keep. If not, it should go. If it is one of the sports that stays, then the money spent on other sports could be spent on baseball and maybe that would help with future big donations to baseball.

 

[Pablo]

Pablo, While that is great that they get a high percentage, one dollar gets you credit on that list.

I was unaware that a donation of $1 would be included. However, I consider donation percentages of 31.11 & 29.94 in FY13 for men's tennis & wrestling, respectively, to be impressive - see http://www.gomason.com/ViewArticle...._LANG=C&ATCLID=205073218&DB_OEM_ID=25200.:eek: