Mason’s attempt to do “traditional collegiate athletics” is laughably bad and for a new institution with no real history to lean on just dumb to even try. Blow it up.
Welcome New AD Marvin Lewis
- Thread starter Patriotsince81
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Mason’s attempt to do “traditional collegiate athletics” is laughably bad and for a new institution with no real history to lean on just dumb to even try. Blow it up.
Heh - thats a loaded question.
If he can get shit done and do a good job that's pretty much fixing the culture. To some degree you could argue Brad did some fix some items ( yes easy stuff/low hanging fruit/blah blah) which was great but never took us to that next step. Hopefully Marvin fixes any of the easy stuff that remains and keeps going.
Brad fixed some infrastructure issues but didn’t try to reshape how the administration does things or what it attempts to do. I believe it was on his watch, for instance, when they gutted the Patriot Platoon and tried to bring its management “in-house” and renamed it the G-Force all but guaranteeing that no self-respecting student would join that thing.
They also buried one of our poster’s attempts to distribute cheer guides to the student section because they’d want to “approve the cheers first” and then refused to actually do any vetting.
Biggest thing they need to do is stop trying to control the students and what they do during games.
Some aspects need to be sustained, some need to be completely revamped.
The more aggressive high risk/high reward approach to HC hiring (KE, Tony) needs to stay.
The improvement in social media needs to stay (they'll need to get on that soon if they hadn't already -- saw the main guy left a few months ago).
There are some other systemic approaches that need to absolutely go. The "let me tell you why we can't" mindset instead of finding a way to accomplish something irks me to no end. Perfect example -- the gold room issue. Folks bring up the issues with spacing, layout, etc. and seemingly the response they are getting is "where else can we put it?" For a school who slaps innovation is tradition on everything they can -- they don't always seem to practice what they preach.
The lack of transparency on major projects seems like it should be an easy fix -- literally just tell us what is going on with the current facilities projects. The whole idea of having to know a guy who knows a guy to get a rumor about what's going on with the millions raised and allocated by the state for athletics construction just feels wrong.
There's a much longer list -- and while I agree alot of the lower hanging fruit did get taken care of by Brad -- there is still alot of room for growth within the AD.
Pablo
Hall of Famer
Lewis Embraces "Listening and Learning Tour" - George Mason University Athletics
Hello Mason Nation:
gomason.com
"My first day in the office was officially Monday, July 3rd and I immediately initiated a comprehensive "listening and learning" tour to understand our overall operation, develop relationships with various stakeholders, align expectations, and quickly adapt to Mason's culture. In addition, I conducted a climate survey which received responses from over 90% of the department's coaches and staff. I have and will continue to meet with key stakeholders - head coaches, administrative staff, student-athletes, donors, alumni, university partners, and local community members to get up to speed. I am excited to identify what makes our university, athletics department, and student-athletes special while building upon the momentum created during our successful spring competition and academic season."
"Also, be on the lookout for future "Inside Mason Nation" communications throughout the year. Our goal is to keep members of our community informed and updated on happenings across the department. You can also stay connected by subscribing to our weekly Patriot Brew newsletter which is distributed Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week."
NewPatriot
Starter
For all a Mason's past problems, if Lewis gets things done right then it's in a better position for long term athletic success then vcu.
In 2018, vcu was the largest 4 yr public institution in the state with 31k with Mason at about 30k. In 5 short years, Mason is now the largest with a shade under 40k while vcu is lost 10% of its enrollment now down to 28k.
If Mason can leverage it's location, Fairfax County, the DMV hot bed for athletes, the continued improvement academic excellence then it find it easier to fund the infrastructure necessary a high level athletics program attractive higher level conference suitors.
Last weekend I hung out with the Treasurer from Eagle Bank, he's an old KA from Mason, and we discussed how their CEO doesn't care/like for having the naming rights to the Patriot Center. She thinks there isn't much to gain and is a "waste of money" spending money on it. Apparently they are locked in a contract until 2026 for the naming rights.... they pay $600K (assuming every year) for the naming rights. He mentioned that if she is still CEO in 2026 they will not renew.
So Marvin will need to find the next suitor to sponsor the Patriot Center coming up. In this market it shouldn't be an issue I would think but hopefully he can add a strong partner.
So Marvin will need to find the next suitor to sponsor the Patriot Center coming up. In this market it shouldn't be an issue I would think but hopefully he can add a strong partner.
I would think $600k a year would be a pretty good value considering the number of locals that come through those doors every year for all the different events held there. They are not Bank of America or Chase, they need the name recognition.
But I welcome the opportunity to get another sponsor for a larger amount hopefully if they want to walk.
Brad 100% fleeced them on that deal. They must have gotten blinded by the ring. I think it may be tough given our attendance to get a much better deal than we got with Eagle Bank, and will be pleasantly surprised if the AD can find someone to match it.
I'm not sure how big a factor men's basketball attendance alone factors into it - look at all of the different types of events held there, it's crazy and is a very diverse target audience.
Other than Disney on Ice -- attendance (and events held) at EBA is plummeting. I'd be super interested to see the total number of attendees across all events there for a year. I live very close by and even on concert nights the place is a ghost town, it's a far cry from a little over a decade ago when they were top 20 in attendance nationwide. There's way too much competition in the region (New Cap One in Tysons, Wharf, etc) that are newer/nicer facilities and metro accessible that are eating up events that used to come to EBA.
Take a look at the current schedule -- outside of bull riding and disney on ice, have you ever heard of anything that is scheduled to come here for the rest of the year?
Fair enough - and no, but that was the case 10 years ago too.
Eagle Bank has been looking to lower expenses recently:
WWE show last month was packed. Haven't seen the arena that full or that loud in many years.
Lewis has reorganized the athletic department and I was pleased to see that NIL/recruiting is specifically referenced as an area of responsibility on the new org chart. The AD needs to be involved in NIL as much as it can within NCAA rules.
Here is a link to the full release:
https://gomason.com/news/2023/8/30/athletics-rogers-and-everett-promoted.aspx
Here is a link to the new org chart:
https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...A_Stratetgic_Leadership_Org_Chart_8-29-23.pdf
Here is a link to the full release:
https://gomason.com/news/2023/8/30/athletics-rogers-and-everett-promoted.aspx
Here is a link to the new org chart:
https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...A_Stratetgic_Leadership_Org_Chart_8-29-23.pdf
I didn’t see anything with fan engagement that also included “dealing with fan complaining”, lol.
It’s a first that they even announced something like this publicly.
Transparency is a wonderful thing when you’re trying to get people to open their wallets lol.
Hopefully this is just the beginning.
Wow...This is a lot to throw at 6 people. Wonder what kind of staff's will be supporting these leaders as your success is dependent upon your "foot soldiers" doing the day to day activities. Structure is in place, which is great, now holding standards and these people accountable is what we need to see as Accountability is everything.
Working with numerous clients at universities and seeing how big staff's are over my career in technology it's interesting the new CFO (Everett) has so much on her plate to deal with. There is some overlap with duties listed, however, I would of broken up the revenue generation portion and have another person under this area which covers: Contracts, Marketing, Promotions/Sponsorships, NIL as these all are the lifeblood of collegiate sports. Bring in people who are experts and who can narrowly focus on 3-4 verticals rather than just throwing out 6-7 broad topics and expect them to be in charge. We can all agree Mason needs these areas to flourish and create funds from so many channels to help our teams win. Looking at the chart..... these are a lot of broad areas for just 6 people to oversee.
This is a good step, to have a plan of action and documented framework for success..... now just have to hold people accountable and know when to make adjustments/changes in the future and not be typical Mason and sit back and do nothing. Marvin needs to have a very short leash here and not be afraid to shake things up in the near future when/if needed.
Working with numerous clients at universities and seeing how big staff's are over my career in technology it's interesting the new CFO (Everett) has so much on her plate to deal with. There is some overlap with duties listed, however, I would of broken up the revenue generation portion and have another person under this area which covers: Contracts, Marketing, Promotions/Sponsorships, NIL as these all are the lifeblood of collegiate sports. Bring in people who are experts and who can narrowly focus on 3-4 verticals rather than just throwing out 6-7 broad topics and expect them to be in charge. We can all agree Mason needs these areas to flourish and create funds from so many channels to help our teams win. Looking at the chart..... these are a lot of broad areas for just 6 people to oversee.
This is a good step, to have a plan of action and documented framework for success..... now just have to hold people accountable and know when to make adjustments/changes in the future and not be typical Mason and sit back and do nothing. Marvin needs to have a very short leash here and not be afraid to shake things up in the near future when/if needed.
When I see Eagle Bank, I think of the arena, not the bank lol.
The headline threw me off.
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Doc Nix and the Green Machine
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Patriot Brew Blog/Newsletter