Facilities and Arena discussion

GMUgemini

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This is bullshit. Providence paid KE $4M per. There’s not a single A-10 team with the financial wherewithal to match that offer and frankly I don’t think we should have even if we could afford to — it was an outlandish amount of money for a coach who has proven absolutely nothing.

That situation was not handled well, mostly because of the lack of a permanent AD, but it’s not fair to say because Mason didn’t match a crazy offer it is not committed to the basketball program.

vcu also lost their coach to a similar offer. It’s going to happen. Hell, P5 teams lose coaches to the blue bloods.

As for an arena, I think you need to keep in mind EBA is incredibly lucrative outside of collegiate sports: it was ranked 63rd worldwide in concert revenues, for instance. And this is also why I think the calls for a smaller “basketball-centric” arena won’t happen.
 

tblack33

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vcu also lost their coach to a similar offer. It’s going to happen. Hell, P5 teams lose coaches to the blue bloods.

As for an arena, I think you need to keep in mind EBA is incredibly lucrative outside of collegiate sports: it was ranked 63rd worldwide in concert revenues, for instance. And this is also why I think the calls for a smaller “basketball-centric” arena won’t happen.
I know the 63rd in concert revenues was def true at a time, but I don’t know how accurate that is anymore. I live nearby and there aren’t a ton of events going on as frequently as they used to at EBA, particularly concerts.

Here’s the list of upcoming events for the next few months, only 1-2 of these really jumps out as something that will have really large attendance that would surpass what a 6-7k arena could handle.

 

GMUgemini

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I know the 63rd in concert revenues was def true at a time, but I don’t know how accurate that is anymore. I live nearby and there aren’t a ton of events going on as frequently as they used to at EBA, particularly concerts.

Here’s the list of upcoming events for the next few months, only 1-2 of these really jumps out as something that will have really large attendance that would surpass what a 6-7k arena could handle.


Those were 2019 number before the pandemic shut down the concert circuit. Not sure they’ve published 2022 numbers yet.
 

mkaufman1

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Fwiw the April to October schedule is usually light at EBA in terms of performance schedule. EBA is always busiest starting in the fall.

Graduation season will start in a few weeks between mason, nova, and local high schools until the end of June.
 

GMU79

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I get that, but a hall of fame should be celebrating careers and not just moments. Pearson has to get the nod ahead of Morrison at this juncture because of his stats and overall ability.

That said if we are celebrating moments as well, thats probably a whole other top 10 list (Sherrod Wright's buzzer beaters, Luke's 3, Dre Smith's 10/10, Tony's 3 against Wichita State).

Many of the moments I mentioned are in that top 50 plays of the decade youtube that Mason athletics put out a few years ago.
Is Dre's 10/10 a NCAA record?

Is Dre's 10/10 a NCAA record?
Also, I might be tempted to replace Merton, Morrison, or Butler with Andre Gaddy. Though I am also all in on Derevjanik and Pearson.
 
Well maybe Mason Athletics needs to use mass blast Fear Fundraising emails similar to the ones the respective political parties send out telling their supporters they are getting outgunned and need to give.

Something to the effect of 4 Million Dollars lured our coach away last time how do we know it won't happen again.

See if we can aggressively raise 4 million dollars to use as a war chest to prevent future Power Schools from taking our coach.
This is bullshit. Providence paid KE $4M per. There’s not a single A-10 team with the financial wherewithal to match that offer and frankly I don’t think we should have even if we could afford to — it was an outlandish amount of money for a coach who has proven absolutely nothing.

That situation was not handled well, mostly because of the lack of a permanent AD, but it’s not fair to say because Mason didn’t match a crazy offer it is not committed to the basketball program.
 

mkaufman1

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Well maybe Mason Athletics needs to use mass blast Fear Fundraising emails similar to the ones the respective political parties send out telling their supporters they are getting outgunned and need to give.

Something to the effect of 4 Million Dollars lured our coach away last time how do we know it won't happen again.

See if we can aggressively raise 4 million dollars to use as a war chest to prevent future Power Schools from taking our coach.
Great idea, maybe an all caps email should be sent

someone come up with a template and make sure it includes words like

war
meal plans
stability
strategic scheduling
bananas
Cuban food
 
Great idea, maybe an all caps email should be sent

someone come up with a template and make sure it includes words like

war
meal plans
stability
strategic scheduling
bananas
Cuban food


"But, despite the annoying nature of the communications, they seem to work, perhaps because they are so meticulously crafted. Toby Fallsgraff, email director for the Obama 2012 campaign, explained to NPR how the campaign would test up to 18 versions of a message on certain subscribers before sending it out widely. Emails brought in roughly $500m for the campaign. A few years later, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign asked for money 50 different ways in one month."

Why not try that approach with our fanbase? Aggressive fundraising might bring in some money we can squirrel away so we can use that money to fend off the power schools.
 

tblack33

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"But, despite the annoying nature of the communications, they seem to work, perhaps because they are so meticulously crafted. Toby Fallsgraff, email director for the Obama 2012 campaign, explained to NPR how the campaign would test up to 18 versions of a message on certain subscribers before sending it out widely. Emails brought in roughly $500m for the campaign. A few years later, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign asked for money 50 different ways in one month."

Why not try that approach with our fanbase? Aggressive fundraising might bring in some money we can squirrel away so we can use that money to fend off the power schools.
Realistically grassroots fundraising won’t help us triple our coaching salary if it came up again where we were getting poached, but that said I’m not opposed to our AD trying to borrow some of the more successful tried/true fundraising techniques from politics. Increased communication and making it easier to donate (direct from text messages, more easily setting up recurring donations, looking for more small dollar donations to bring people into the ecosystem, etc.).

It’s never a bad idea to look at more ways to try to bring in donations when it looks like we have less than 500 members of the patriot club on any given year. We are less than 5 years from when the patriot club just straight up forgot to charge a pretty significant amount of season ticket holders/patriot club members for their yearly donation and had to send an email asking for the money the summer after the season, so I think it’s still fair to question some of our donation soliciting practices.
 

mkaufman1

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Ok, I digress and cave.

The ideas behind this aren’t half bad. I do think unfortunately mason lacks investment in tech or people resources to do some of this. However I hope Marvin Lewis can help fix it.
 

mkaufman1

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I will concede that I'm clearly in the minority in modern America, but those scare tactic style of marketing emails make my blood boil and I can't hit unsubscribe fast enough when I see it.
There’s gotta be a happy medium to something like this. Threatening emails scaring people to donate is not something realistic and not something mason will do or I want them to do. But something that sells the mason product on what’s upcoming and being invested in, is realistic.

It all comes back to “the more we know about what’s going on, the more we can say “ohh I want to be part of that””.
 

tblack33

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There’s gotta be a happy medium to something like this. Threatening emails scaring people to donate is not something realistic and not something mason will do or I want them to do. But something that sells the mason product on what’s upcoming and being invested in, is realistic.

It all comes back to “the more we know about what’s going on, the more we can say “ohh I want to be part of that””.
Yeah I think it would be a mistake to try to mirror content with excessive hyperbole and scaremongering but the idea of using text to go direct to donors with more info about what’s going on with the program, and insight to what donations get used for the better. And our donation page could absolutely use modernization. Right now I know for a fact there are people confused when they make donations about having to put the amount in a separate field for friends of mbb. It should be intuitive.
 
Youtube or Facebook Live "town halls" would be a good way for them to peer back the curtain/so fans can ask questions. It seems simple enough.

I don't know if having an event at Banditos and having the same 10 people show up and ask questions the way people used to make Hewitt stand and answer questions at Brions would "grow the fanbase" whereas with technology they can do a youtube live/facebook live.

Maybe even make one a joint one with Vanessa Blair Lewis to offer some insights. They had a winning year and i'm sure fans are a tad interested in how they do too.

But... it gets into how much do they want to $$$ on technology/staffers. That I don't know...
 

MasonFanatic

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Youtube or Facebook Live "town halls" would be a good way for them to peer back the curtain/so fans can ask questions. It seems simple enough.

I don't know if having an event at Banditos and having the same 10 people show up and ask questions the way people used to make Hewitt stand and answer questions at Brions would "grow the fanbase" whereas with technology they can do a youtube live/facebook live.

Maybe even make one a joint one with Vanessa Blair Lewis to offer some insights. They had a winning year and i'm sure fans are a tad interested in how they do too.

But... it gets into how much do they want to $$$ on technology/staffers. That I don't know...
If you aren't aware, they've already poured a lot of money into the Coach's Show from a technical and production aspect.

I think the next step is casting a wider net for questions. Folks who do attend in person can pass along questions from folks out of the area (I did this more than once), but I agree a digital way to submit questions would be valuable.
 

mkaufman1

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This! It's about the connection to people from the university.
Could not agree more. One of the many things I've bitched about over the years with @MasonFanatic is how anything new seems like a top secret project. There HAS been major strides (coaches show has really helped some of the simple/boring stuff like injuries, being transparent about recruiting etc) but there is still more to do.

I will say, that the more you engage, show up etc, the easier it is to get information, share thoughts and just connect.
 

mkaufman1

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Exactly - give us a plan with milestones and a schedule.
As much as we'd all love to see a plan with milestones and a schedule, I'm not sure we'll ever see it unless we are on the Patriot club advisory board.

Also, I don't have time to look now, but if someone can find me another athletics program that does this sort of thing just for an example I'd love to see it. More so because if I get told "oh there aren't any other athletics programs that do that", I'd love to have an example.

Also, if there are no examples, that doesn't mean Mason shouldn't do it to be "innovative" with their donors. If anything that gives more reasons to do it.
 
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