As I said before, we’ve got to make it a social event and make people feel connected and/or stay connected to the university and basketball program.
I’ve said this before and here is what I would try to get y’all to do if I lived there and not here. And that is take a page from soccer culture and start an unofficial supporters group for Mason basketball (you can build it out to all sports if you want eventually if/when it gets big enough to do so).
I’ve been a supporter of DC United since ‘96. When I lived there I used to sit behind the Barra Brava, who at the time set the gold standard for soccer supporter culture in the U.S.
So this is kind of a combination between an official supporters groups Screaming Eagles and and unofficial supporters group DCUK (which standards for DC United Kingdom—because the founder is from the UK and it’s meant to connected international United fans).
It would be a collaboration between Masonhoops, Giant Killers and the Collective. It would have a similar model to the Screaming Eagles in that there are yearly dues to maintain membership. Those yearly dues would be used to keep and maintain a block of tickets from which members can buy single game tickets as well as help fund the collective. We would use the Giant Killers name and logo (with their permission, since they were originally created to hype the program and get people excited about Mason basketball again) and give everyone a Giant Killers logo’s scarf to promote the group.
Everyone would sit together in a tight block m the same section. It would probably be a rather smaller group at first but hopefully will grow, ideally to be about 150-200 strong. There will be Barra level of expectations for standing; chanting and singing the entire game (although we won’t step on the toes of the band during timeouts/halftime—who cares about the cheerleaders and what they’re doing). Soccer supporters groups generally make their own signage (called tifo) and write their own songs (based on common melodies and tailored to certain opposing teams as well as their own players). We will either do an American style tailgate every home game or a European style pub pre-game. Apparently the university doesn’t care if you tailgate so long as you don’t advertise you’re drinking (yes, Brian?)
Ideally and eventually we would arrange bus trips to busable away games (Richmond, Philly, New York) made exclusively for Giant Killers members. This is what the Screaming Eagles do.
Giant Killers will continue to make their content as a way to keep members and dans connected during the season and offseason. Masonhoops will continue to be the place where those fans come together and talk hoops and to help keep the Mason diaspora connected and in the loop.
The one thing that is an important difference is the Screaming Eagles get an allotment of tickets from United for their supporters section to sell to their membership. This is what makes them an “official” team supporters group. The way college economics works we would have to pool season tickets together, purchasing more than we would use and then sell those tickets to supporters who don’t donate their tickets to the group’s collective.
Here is the Screaming Eagles website:
https://www.screaming-eagles.com/
Here is DCUK’s website:
https://dcunitedkingdom.com/
The benefits of doing this are several:
1) having three dedicated sections (band, students, supporters section) the energy generated will be infectious. The older supporters, being “die hards” and promising to bring it every game will also teach the students how to be the “6th man on the court” they will take their cues from us.
2) If this isn’t something that gets abandoned like everything else at Mason, the consistent social aspects (both physical and digital) will generate a sustainable community and will provide a place for students to enter when they leave school. They will want to become a part of us.
3) if the supporters group gets big enough the dues will help not only Mason athletics (through increased season tickets sales and donation for said tickets), but also the collective (as dues not needed for events hosting, and maintaining said season tickets) can be used for donations to the collective, which will in turn help get and keep the better players on the roster.
4) it will help grow this tiny community here since we will be the founders and sponsors of the official Giant Killer supporters group message board (no need to change the name of the board).
I’m also not married to using George Mason Giant Killers but they already have a presence and a logo, so was cribbing their name. I also don’t mean to step on their toes here either, so my apologies if this sounds dumb to you guys (and to the Masonhoops community).
End of super long post that I doubt anyone will use. But it’s an idea I’ve had for a long time. I just moved back to Miami in ‘09 (which is where I’m originally from—well not originally originally, but where my family had relocated to before going to Mason) and now live in Arizona.
