Gameday Experience

[GMUSig03]

You only need about 5% of the student population to go, maybe even less. Averaging 700-900 students a game would be just fine. That's, what, about 4% of the undergrads (at 900 a game).

Exactly, based off the sheer numbers alone is where my expectation and disappointment stems from.

 

[MasonSAE4]

You only need about 5% of the student population to go, maybe even less. Averaging 700-900 students a game would be just fine. That's, what, about 4% of the undergrads (at 900 a game).

You need to look at it from the % of students who live on campus or have apartments just off. Commuters aren't the type of people going to games. Demographically I think a whole lot of them come from backgrounds where basketball is not a popular sport. They're on campus for class and then just want to get home.

 

[GMUgemini]

You need to look at it from the % of students who live on campus or have apartments just off. Commuters aren't the type of people going to games. Demographically I think a whole lot of them come from backgrounds where basketball is not a popular sport. They're on campus for class and then just want to get home.

When I was an undergrad I had several friends who went to games with me who commuted -- from Prince William County, no less. Most of the people I knew who were commuters lived with 5 miles of campus anyway, so it's not a great burden on them to get to games.

As has been said so many times, you get a team that is constantly in the hunt, you will be surprised at how many students all of a sudden become basketball fans.

 

[MasonGradSquared]

They should market better to the Greeks. Give the Greeks something to pregame. I think the herd mentality is strongest there so if you convince a few from each org to regularly participate then you will see them attend and multiply. This would also help Section 115 identify potential recruits to rush.

 

[Falco]

I think getting students to EBA for basketball is tougher than we all think. I honestly think the vast majority of students just arent into basketball at all. I wasnt as a kid, and still hate the NBA. If someone isnt a fan of the game they probably arent gonna go to one, let alone 15 of them.

its simple, Winning will draw more students. and by winning i mean, 3+ seasons of 25+ wins and NCAA tourney appearances. We are on the right track and will get back to that point.

You are absolutely right. One of the main reasons I picked to go to Mason in 2008 was the basketball program. Only 2 years after the final 4 run.

My other options where Rutgers, and JMU. I loved they had football, but they weren't dominate. I figured Mason would be chasing a national championship. Seems silly to choose a school based on athletics, but I was only 18.

We are so far removed from the final 4 current students don't even consider the basketball team when applying.

 

[MasonSAE4]

When I was an undergrad I had several friends who went to games with me who commuted -- from Prince William County, no less. Most of the people I knew who were commuters lived with 5 miles of campus anyway, so it's not a great burden on them to get to games.

As has been said so many times, you get a team that is constantly in the hunt, you will be surprised at how many students all of a sudden become basketball fans.

It's not the burden of getting there but it is the annoyance of being done with classes at 3 and the games at 7. Not a lot of people would stick around. I'm not saying commuters don't go, but they are certainly not the bread and butter of people coming out and for every commuter coming to games, 50 aren't. And yeah winning would certainly see a boost.

 

[MasonSAE4]

They should market better to the Greeks. Give the Greeks something to pregame. I think the herd mentality is strongest there so if you convince a few from each org to regularly participate then you will see them attend and multiply. This would also help Section 115 identify potential recruits to rush.

I've always thought the portion above the platoon should be a Greek area. Let them bring their flags, hang banners, get rowdy, etc. We don't have to worry about obstructing the views of the people that aren't coming.

According to one of our guys who transferred to South Carolina, their coach went to all the houses on campus/chapter meetings to ask them to come out. Apparently attendance among Greeks spiked pretty high. They seem to have had a good year on the court.

 

[Falco]

My first week of college I went to a party hosted by Mason on a parking garage. There was a DJ (not me) a disk joky. Up through my senior year, I would hear different stories about that night. Everyone loved it.

Why cant they host parties like that before games.

 

[By George.]

My first week of college I went to a party hosted by Mason on a parking garage. There was a DJ (not me) a disk joky. Up through my senior year, I would hear different stories about that night. Everyone loved it.

Why cant they host parties like that before games.

The school does not want the ruckus. Also, most schools don't really tailgate before basketball games. It's hard enough for student to find parking on campus. We have battled back and forth about tailgating with Mason for two years now. It's not happening. Homecoming, we personally watched a dude pass out, throw up on himself and get taken away on an ambulance. They don't want that grief routinely. I do think Mason can do a better job advertising on campus and appealing to Greek life. T0o often they have conflicting calendars. DP tried the whole donut give-away but they determined that students don't care. I suggested they don't quit that type of advertisement.

We've also been in contact with different Frats about showing up to games and for the most part I thought our students did a pretty good job this year. I like the green guys, I noticed we had some different cheers and saw some familiar faces teaching the rest of the students how to actually stand and scream. Crumpled paper seemed to make a comeback as well as "suck on that!" They also have that white tent outside of the student entrance that companies can sponsor and host pregame stuff. We are working with Mason this summer on some weekend home game pregame parties and will have more information on that as next season gets closer. Winning cures all. Want to help? Let us know.

Students did however botch Pittsburgh, big league.

 

[Jack Strop]

Most of the people I knew who were commuters lived with 5 miles of campus anyway, so it's not a great burden on them to get to games.

Yup that would be me! Grew up in Fairfax City and rode my bike to campus from my folks house. I was not interested in Mason basketball until I heard they were really good and that they might make the NIT after losing to Richmond in the CAA finals. I followed the story-line in the Broadside and was disappointed that we didn't make the cut.

Next season I went to see Mason lose to Richmond and later beat JMU by 1. I listened to a barn-burner conference tourney final on GMU radio beating UNCW in OT. That game sent Mason to it's first NCAA tournament. Then I was hooked!

I thought we would be an awesome team battling with the big boys in the NCAAs every year. Even though Nestor kept filling up the litter box in subsequent seasons, I went to game after game. Even as we were losers for nearly 10 years thence, I just loved going to games.

The point is, winning brought me in and I got swept up in the team. I kept looking for that rush of getting to the NCAAs and I wanted to be an engaged passenger on that glorious ride. So I endured... I'm sure the story is similar with most of us ardent fans. Winning will cure all!

 

[GMUgemini]

It's not the burden of getting there but it is the annoyance of being done with classes at 3 and the games at 7. Not a lot of people would stick around. I'm not saying commuters don't go, but they are certainly not the bread and butter of people coming out and for every commuter coming to games, 50 aren't. And yeah winning would certainly see a boost.

One out of every 50 is still a couple of hundred. The point is, you can't say 0 commuters will ever go to a GMU home game, they should be included in the overall population even if they will be a smaller share of the percentage going to games.

The overall point is, 95% of all undergraduates could have no interest in attending games ever, and you could still get 900 students a game.

And I'm only talking about undergraduates. You might get 50 graduate students a game, too, who knows? I know a few on here who went as graduate students.

 

[MasonSAE4]

One out of every 50 is still a couple of hundred. The point is, you can't say 0 commuters will ever go to a GMU home game, they should be included in the overall population even if they will be a smaller share of the percentage going to games.

The overall point is, 95% of all undergraduates could have no interest in attending games ever, and you could still get 900 students a game.

And I'm only talking about undergraduates. You might get 50 graduate students a game, too, who knows? I know a few on here who went as graduate students.

I'm not saying 0 will go, but I think when it's clear they're gonna be a way lower share in terms of percentage that it'd be better to focus on turning out those who have easier access to games (those who live on campus, especially the freshmen.)

I think everyone should go and Mason should try and turn everyone out, people on here just seem to forget we have a real non-traditional student body and a large amount of those commuters have families to get home to and feed, or already have a 9-5 they need to be up for. I'm not knocking commuters in the least.

And yeah, grad students go. Both my girlfriend and I are at every game and we're both grad students. I'd assume there's at least another handful in there.

 

[GMUgemini]

So, crunching the numbers and granting a 0% turnout from commuter students, you would have to convince 15% of on-campus students to come to games to get to an average of 900. That's still doable.

 

[Falco]

The school does not want the ruckus. Also, most schools don't really tailgate before basketball games. It's hard enough for student to find parking on campus. We have battled back and forth about tailgating with Mason for two years now. It's not happening. Homecoming, we personally watched a dude pass out, throw up on himself and get taken away on an ambulance. They don't want that grief routinely. I do think Mason can do a better job advertising on campus and appealing to Greek life. T0o often they have conflicting calendars. DP tried the whole donut give-away but they determined that students don't care. I suggested they don't quit that type of advertisement.

We've also been in contact with different Frats about showing up to games and for the most part I thought our students did a pretty good job this year. I like the green guys, I noticed we had some different cheers and saw some familiar faces teaching the rest of the students how to actually stand and scream. Crumpled paper seemed to make a comeback as well as "suck on that!" They also have that white tent outside of the student entrance that companies can sponsor and host pregame stuff. We are working with Mason this summer on some weekend home game pregame parties and will have more information on that as next season gets closer. Winning cures all. Want to help? Let us know.

Students did however botch Pittsburgh, big league.

I just hear excuses. We bitch and complain attendance is low, that not enough students go. We all know the answer. College kids want to party. Give them/ let them party and attendance is fixed.

 

[MasonSAE4]

I just hear excuses. We bitch and complain attendance is low, that not enough students go. We all know the answer. College kids want to party. Give them/ let them party and attendance is fixed.

The tailgate is a big thing because it's once a year and students/alum are willing to put up with the cold. If that was every weekend or every other weekend no one would go.

 

[MasonSAE4]

The school does not want the ruckus. Also, most schools don't really tailgate before basketball games. It's hard enough for student to find parking on campus. We have battled back and forth about tailgating with Mason for two years now. It's not happening. Homecoming, we personally watched a dude pass out, throw up on himself and get taken away on an ambulance. They don't want that grief routinely. I do think Mason can do a better job advertising on campus and appealing to Greek life. T0o often they have conflicting calendars. DP tried the whole donut give-away but they determined that students don't care. I suggested they don't quit that type of advertisement.

We've also been in contact with different Frats about showing up to games and for the most part I thought our students did a pretty good job this year. I like the green guys, I noticed we had some different cheers and saw some familiar faces teaching the rest of the students how to actually stand and scream. Crumpled paper seemed to make a comeback as well as "suck on that!" They also have that white tent outside of the student entrance that companies can sponsor and host pregame stuff. We are working with Mason this summer on some weekend home game pregame parties and will have more information on that as next season gets closer. Winning cures all. Want to help? Let us know.

Students did however botch Pittsburgh, big league.

Wasn't the donut giveaway at like 9 am on Friday's when no one has class?

 

[Falco]

The tailgate is a big thing because it's once a year and students/alum are willing to put up with the cold. If that was every weekend or every other weekend no one would go.

I agree they don't need it every weekend. But at least the first Saturday. Get ppl excited before the middle of the season and while it's still warm

 

[Vurbel]

I wonder what the percentage of filled seats in the student sections (122-125, 107-110) versus those in the rest of the arena (100-104, 113-119, 128-130). It's not like the non-student sections are standing room only.

 

[masonjoe]

I can tell from a lot of the comments on this thread that a lot of you didn't go to Mason and certainly were never apart of the greek life there either. The thought that a Wednesday night mid-major basketball game is like the greatest event of all time to students is just silly and a hard sell. They just don't care because it's a niche product right now and have a million other things to do, like sorority chicks.

I'm not a women's basketball fan. What could the Mystics do to get me to go to a game? VERY little would move the needle enough for me to go to the game. Isn't it basically the same sell to students who have never been to a college hoops game? Why do we need those kind of fans to validate the program? Continue winning and you start seeing less kids walking around campus with VT and UVA sweatshirts.

If mason was making the tournament every year and our crowd was this low then sure there's a problem. Current state right now, there's no problem.

 

[Vurbel]

I don't know why we are blaming Greeks. We could say any other campus group with a large number of people and it'd be the same concept.