Welcome New AD Marvin Lewis

KAOriginal

All-American
Kudos to Clemson and their system.

When my parents had their 50th Anniversary a few years ago I took upon myself to get politicians, celebrities, etc to send letters of congratulations.

Mason did squat.

My parents retired from VA to 1/2 hour from Clemson and have nothing to do with sports. But somehow Dabo Sweeney and Brad Brownell were able to "send" letters. (Not to mention a Miami coach) Separate envelopes--weeks apart and oddly not even matching templates.

Now my mom pays attention to Clemson sports.

Mason could learn alot about public engagement.
 

Jack Strop

Starter
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Kudos to Clemson and their system.

When my parents had their 50th Anniversary a few years ago I took upon myself to get politicians, celebrities, etc to send letters of congratulations.

Mason did squat.

My parents retired from VA to 1/2 hour from Clemson and have nothing to do with sports. But somehow Dabo Sweeney and Brad Brownell were able to "send" letters. (Not to mention a Miami coach) Separate envelopes--weeks apart and oddly not even matching templates.

Now my mom pays attention to Clemson sports.

Mason could learn alot about public engagement.
Mason could also have a lot more money to do those things... but they don't.
 

By George.

Starter
Not shade, they said they had advance notification of the hire which allowed them to have more background on the hire — I obviously did not and so when asked why I hadn’t found the answer to all of my questions in the three hours since it had been announced I figured it would be best to ask the folks who were saying they were excited about it.

Patriot8 gave a good rundown with actual reasons he feels it’s a good hire, everyone else I’m assuming is just excited that someone was hired and less excited about anything specific they knew about Lewis before last night, which is totally fine to be excited about, but at least own that and don’t hide behind the excuse of “google it” when there is not a whole lot of substance out there on what Lewis has been involved in.

I stand by my reasoning for being excited - respect and belief that he’ll be an AD amongst his peers and his 10+ years of experience at multiple schools. Plus the people I trust who approve of him.
 

99 Patriot

Starter
GIVING DAY 2023
We heard about this a few weeks ago from a reliable source but didn’t think it was appropriate to break an AD hire. We can confirm he approved the Tony hire.

We have vetted this guy via the internet: we are hyped.

I’m not sure we really want to run with this rhetoric that he approved the Tony hire. I’m sure as someone who wanted the job that he supported it when asked but I wouldn’t suggest he had a role in the hiring, which this implies.
 

By George.

Starter
I’m not sure we really want to run with this rhetoric that he approved the Tony hire. I’m sure as someone who wanted the job that he supported it when asked but I wouldn’t suggest he had a role in the hiring, which this implies.
Approved as in he likes Tony not had a role in the hire. Sorry for confusion.
 

gmubrian

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
GIVING DAY 2023
I’m not sure we really want to run with this rhetoric that he approved the Tony hire. I’m sure as someone who wanted the job that he supported it when asked but I wouldn’t suggest he had a role in the hiring, which this implies.
If our school has learned anything from their missteps about a month ago and prior, and I believe they have based on their recent actions, the sentiment should have been does Tony approve of Brown as the new AD.
 

Masonfan3

Starter
Approved as in he likes Tony not had a role in the hire. Sorry for confusion.
Not really sure anyone that was interviewing for the job was going to say they dislike the new coach who also happens to be an alum/hero at the university. No way he would have gotten the job if he said he disliked Tony. Don't know too much about Marvin Lewis but I will support him and trust that he was the best guy for the job. Having said that, I was hoping that we would have gone with someone who had either been an AD at a smaller school or who had worked for a high quality AD at a larger one. Not sure working for/learning from Todd Stansbury is something I would put on my resume...
 

Pikapppatri8

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
I have received numerous calls from current student athletes saying thank you and then asking if I will increase my donation to the Patriot Club over the years. I have increased a few times and they still call back the next year asking for more…
Likewise - my automated payment script processed third donation. Please get this through the site.

GMUBrian being optimistic has me optimistic.
 

tblack33

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
One thing I’d like to see get changed in year one, the online system we use for donations. In addition to making it more clear how to get your money to the program you want (Friends of MBB vs general fund).

Despite the fact that I’ve donated many times at this point, and I know Mason has all my info, every single time I have to reinput all of my contact info, address, and payment info each time. It sounds dumb, and in the grand scheme of things it only takes 10-15 minutes each time as I fumble around to find my wallet, in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty three this should not even be a thing. This problem has been solved for at least 20 years everywhere else on the internet.
 

GMUgemini

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
One thing I’d like to see get changed in year one, the online system we use for donations. In addition to making it more clear how to get your money to the program you want (Friends of MBB vs general fund).

Despite the fact that I’ve donated many times at this point, and I know Mason has all my info, every single time I have to reinput all of my contact info, address, and payment info each time. It sounds dumb, and in the grand scheme of things it only takes 10-15 minutes each time as I fumble around to find my wallet, in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty three this should not even be a thing. This problem has been solved for at least 20 years everywhere else on the internet.

You could have all of this info saved in your browser…

They also allow you to use PayPal to make the payment.

I’m not sure how much of a pain it is to add Apple Pay and Google Pay as options, but I would definitely not mind just double clicking the side button on my phone to make the donation.
 

hoopsjunkie75

Specialist
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
You could have all of this info saved in your browser…

They also allow you to use PayPal to make the payment.

I’m not sure how much of a pain it is to add Apple Pay and Google Pay as options, but I would definitely not mind just double clicking the side button on my phone to make the donation.
You kids and all your 8-tracks and technology.... SMH.
 

Verdad

Starter
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Agreed - Mason has (or at least used to) discounted season passes for recent graduates, but I've always thought it was such a missed opportunity not to throw free tickets and gold room passes at recent grads and to make more of an effort to get current students to set foot inside the stadium.

Same thing with current season ticket holders or people who attend one offs - have a gold room giveaway every game for halftime to promote it's existence (so long as we create more space).

You have the future season ticket holders on campus for four years - easiest and cheapest way to market to them instead of trying to get them back after they had a boring undergrad experience and don't care about coming back.

I'm fairly sure there are only a handful of season ticket holders currently who were students when I was at Mason - out of the tens of thousands that were there.
 

mkaufman1

Administrator
Staff member
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
Agreed - Mason has (or at least used to) discounted season passes for recent graduates, but I've always thought it was such a missed opportunity not to throw free tickets and gold room passes at recent grads and to make more of an effort to get current students to set foot inside the stadium.

Same thing with current season ticket holders or people who attend one offs - have a gold room giveaway every game for halftime to promote it's existence (so long as we create more space).

You have the future season ticket holders on campus for four years - easiest and cheapest way to market to them instead of trying to get them back after they had a boring undergrad experience and don't care about coming back.

I'm fairly sure there are only a handful of season ticket holders currently who were students when I was at Mason - out of the tens of thousands that were there.
Beating the drum here for sure. Sadly we figured it out but for whatever Mason hasn't but regardless....

1) yes, the young alumni discount is still in effect for undergrads, same system for years.
2) Not sure they'll do gold room giveaways like that just because of space. As it is I'm pretty sure they are over what it should hold. Its an ongoing topic of "we need more space!!".
3) Anyone who used to do this type of work specifically for students becoming alumns, probably isn't with Mason anymore since they have had large turnover. But then again, even when they had staff they didn't do it.

Much of this gets fixed with winning, but putting the wheels in motion so that you can pour gas on the fire when you win, would be greatly helpful.
 

EXpatriot13

All-Conference
GIVING DAY 2023
Beating the drum here for sure. Sadly we figured it out but for whatever Mason hasn't but regardless....

1) yes, the young alumni discount is still in effect for undergrads, same system for years.
And I guarantee you the vast majority of young alumni have no idea it exists because, like we all know, the AD does a pretty poor job at marketing/comms.

GTown is running that ticket giveaway to get people in the door and engaged, for which I’m sure they’ll then work to upsell those young alumni on whatever ticket packages they’re actually selling.

Really hope we see some new thinking and innovation with the new AD. The lame duck excuses of “we’ve done the same thing for years”or “there’s no space” needs to change.
 

Verdad

Starter
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Giving away two tickets to gold room at halftime during a 1st half promotion would have zero impact on gold room crowding while drastically increasing likelihood of increasing interest from a captive/target audience for joining the gold room. Unless there is an actual limit on gold room admission (meaning if demand warranted, they would supply by making another gold room), insane they dont do this.
 

mkaufman1

Administrator
Staff member
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
Giving away two tickets to gold room at halftime during a 1st half promotion would have zero impact on gold room crowding while drastically increasing likelihood of increasing interest from a captive/target audience for joining the gold room. Unless there is an actual limit on gold room admission (meaning if demand warranted, they would supply by making another gold room), insane they dont do this.
Depends on the game but otherwise agree. Giving away gold room for NJIT is fine lol. We all know the demand for that game will be through the roof. Hell it probably sold out already.
 

TweederGMU

All-Conference
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
I think there's an option out there the AD/Patriot club is not seeing. Thinking there is a big disconnect between the giving levels and what fans get in return. We need more season ticket holders and people having fun/able to connect at games.

My solution would be to create a 3rd Tier / Giving level in between Gold Room and Green Coat society. It is great we have so many Gold Room donors but I think people would actually like an option to donate more and see more of a ROI. Create a middle tier - "White" (or whatever color named we want) in between giving $600 for Gold Room and $5,000 for Green Coat. $5K a year - a lot of people can't shell out that kind of money (props to the people that do) but I've heard from multiple people they would give more than the lowest tier.... have White tier at $1,500, or $2,000, and create a whole separate White Room on the adjacent concourse or you can take the Gold Room location and use that if there's the need/has more people than Gold. This way we would have 3 locations for our prime giving peeps.

1. Gold Room - Keep it as is (focus efforts on young alumni and getting them in)
2. White Room - Elevate the beverage and food options, more tables and chairs, tv's/monitors, popcorn machine, etc. (no more cold pizza). In this room I would say offer local restaurants so the food quality will be better than the Gold Room. I would also give out parking passes. I would also throw in each member in this tier can request White or Gold room passes for 4-5 home games in a season in order to bring friends, family, colleagues, clients, etc. and show them how much fun a game can be - guaranteed this will bring in some interest for those people thinking of donating or even hopping on a mini plan or full season package deal this year or next. Would also throw in a Mason polo shirt, or sweatshirt, for this tier per donor.
3. Green Room - The high class donors can still have their place with all the current trimmings.

This will solve the overcrowding of the Gold room as I think a lot of us or people we know and go to games with would jump at the opportunity to this next tier and be able to not break the bank as there will be a payment plan. Taking a good chunk of people out of the Gold Room and them going to another room will reduce the lines to beer and food and could focus more of the Gold room to the younger crowd.

I think finding room for the White room could be done if they just look at the concourse and see where they could put it.

The goal of athletic organizations and non-profits is to get donors in and keep them contributing and eventually get them to give more as the years go on (as they become more financially stable). I think Mason is shooting itself in the foot just having these 2 tiers.... giving the very bare minimum each year when people could probably give more if they are getting more for their dollar, yet the far end of the spectrum is pretty high ($5k) that a family of 2 or 4 may not be able to afford - this is our lowest turnout tier. If you have a mid-tier.... I think a lot of the diehards and 30-40 year olds could get away with donating $1,500 for a season.
 
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The Great PATSby

Starter
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Easy temporary solution to overcrowding in the Gold Room is to just put on of the these on the balcony next to the Gold room with some heaters.

955f859c-814e-4da0-a9f5-98fa9193576d-large16x9_billys.JPG
 
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