Speculation The Official Dave Paulsen and Brad Edwards Speculation Thread

If we suck this year and Kathy convinces the admin to move on then I'll buy a used chevy PT cruiser.

I mean, get yourself an Impala at least. Treat yourself!

Not sure why anyone would ever compare our program to Dayton’s. They sell out every game in a 13,000-seat arena even when their team is meh. They are literally operating on a different planet than Mason when it comes to giving a shit about basketball.

I understand the arena is used for more than just basketball games. But its a perfect time renovations like you said.

If I had it my way, I would convert upper level seats into luxury box seats. This would lower the capacity of the arena but force the fans to the lower seats. This would give an appearance that the arena is full.

Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. But I was thinking about Mason as a whole.

I get the sense that Virginia just wants Mason to be an affordable State school. UVA and VT gets the prestige and Mason is designed to educate the masses.

The Final 4 was lightning in a bottle. Mason opted to enhance the campus as a whole opposed to just athletics. Can’t blame them. But we are what we are now. Not much will change.

Eh idk, I think if we were successful again it would be different this go around. The state can take a look at VCUs approach to success as the roadmap, they signed off on everything they've done down there.

Yes, but they are in the state capital and there are a lot of anti-NOVA people in the state house. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to give Mason anything.

The main difference is VCU has been able to pay for a lot of athletic upgrades since their Final Four with private and corporate donations. They have multiple Kathy McKays (and bigger) and they raise the donation levels required to get the best seats every year because they can ... for now.

By contrast, Mason didn’t broaden its athletic donor base after 2006 because Merten didn’t want to adversely affect the university’s fundraising. Now nobody wants to donate to a program that hasn’t been to the dance in 10 years.

It probably didn't help that TOC and Merten squandered a pretty decent gift from Barnes and Noble ($1 million wasn't it?) toward a future practice facility after 2006. All they had to do was turn a $20 million renovation/addition project into a $35 million renovation/addition project and maybe we aren't talking about this stuff right now.