Gameday Experience

[GMUSig03]

One question that would need to be answered is, would the sale of alcohol during a game cause less people to join hospitality rooms, and thus lowering the money donated to the Patriot Club?

The vcu article explained the sales are only in one concourse area and only for certain level donors - so it's not like they are offering open alcohol sales in the general concession areas.

Even if open sales were offered, I don't think it would impact people joining the hospitality room.

The hospitality passes are given as part of your required donation for your seats (closer the seats, higher the donation required), with the minimum being $500 to get gold room access.

If someone would choose to give up their hospitality passes, they would also have to move their seats back.

The gold room is a steal - with 17 home games, it comes out to $29.41/game for 1.5 hours of beer/wine/soda and 1 meal per game. And, 1 hour of that is before tip, so I don't think it would have any impact on hospitality memberships.

I think it would just means that donors would grab an extra drink or two during the game, greatly benefiting our lyft partnership. I vote yes!

 

[gmubrian]

So I know it’s fun to beat horses on the boards, but has anyone ever asked someone from the AD about selling beer at games? If so, what did they say?

I had asked this question several years ago (selling alcohol to anyone of age, not restricted to just club members)and I, basically got a politically correct response referring to the optics of selling alcohol at college focused events.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

I had asked this question several years ago (selling alcohol to anyone of age, not restricted to just club members)and I, basically got a politically correct response referring to the optics of selling alcohol at college focused events.

Well, Good!

After all, getting absolutely sh!t-house drunk and acting inappropriately would be a cultural appropriation of my Irish ancestry.

 

[mkaufman1]

I had asked this question several years ago (selling alcohol to anyone of age, not restricted to just club members)and I, basically got a politically correct response referring to the optics of selling alcohol at college focused events.

I’m going to guess that was the old regime? I wonder with Brad and co if they’d be more open minded.

 

[gmubrian]

I’m going to guess that was the old regime? I wonder with Brad and co if they’d be more open minded.

Yeah, wow, now that I add it up:
4 years since I have had tickets
2 years I had minimal interaction with AD
2 years when I probably would have hade the discussion

So, yeah, different AD, different President, different conference, different coach, (not that the last two matter much).

 

[JPgmuswim]

The vcu article explained the sales are only in one concourse area and only for certain level donors - so it's not like they are offering open alcohol sales in the general concession areas.

That’s not the way I read the article. I read they made upgrades to their “platinum dock” for their donors adding TVs and an additional bar for before and during halftime.
Then the article states, “The news comes almost three weeks after Richmond announced that it would begin selling beer to the general public at its men’s basketball games this season, pending approval from the Virginia ABC.”
Looks like the local brewery Hardywood is even getting behind it and will sell vcu colored cans at the games.

 

[MasonFanatic]

I believe there are some complications to openly selling alcohol on state property, but the beer tent they had outside the arena for a few games last season would indicate that's not a complete showstopper. I would imagine one of the other barriers right now is simply a lack of concourse space.

 

[mkaufman1]

That’s not the way I read the article. I read they made upgrades to their “platinum dock” for their donors adding TVs and an additional bar for before and during halftime.
Then the article states, “The news comes almost three weeks after Richmond announced that it would begin selling beer to the general public at its men’s basketball games this season, pending approval from the Virginia ABC.”
Looks like the local brewery Hardywood is even getting behind it and will sell vcu colored cans at the games.

The article made my head hurt because it seemed confusing but I got the same jist you did. It sounded like it was only for specific donors (probably high end donors) to watch the game and have a beer. It did not sound like it was for everyone who attends.

 

[Jack Strop]

Never! Never again shall Mason play a home afternoon game on a Sunday. Never, never, NEVER AGAIN!

We had a fairly decent crown in terms of turnout, but for 33+ minutes of game clock nearly everyone was sitting on their curd-filled asses lolling in their post-brunch food-comas. Too much cinnamon French toast and soft-boiled eggs coagulating in their bloated bellies? I'd say say, chyah!

No joke. On three separate occasions after a good Mason offensive play I literally heard my own echo shouting "OTIS! MY MAN!" No clapping. No yelling. No cheering. The only other fan that I could find making an attempt to cheer was the guy four rows down shouting D-FENSE though his little green megaphone.

I vehemently implored every lazy-assed fan to do something — anything! — that might resemble motivation aimed towards our players. It wasn't until about 7 minutes remained on the game clock that a few of them got marginally "rowdy" (a pretty thin margin, at best).

It was no coincidence to me that when, finally, our cottage-cheese-filled, semi-lactose intolerant, egg-farting fans began to make noise, that Mason started to exert more will to control the game.

Yeeeeesh, Mason fans. Absolutely yeeeeesh. Never. Never again that we have an afternoon home game scheduled on a Sunday!

 

[Falco]

Never! Never again shall Mason play a a home afternoon game on a Sunday. Never, never, NEVER AGAIN!

We had a fairly decent crown in terms of turnout, but for 30 minutes of game clock nearly everyone was sitting on curd-filled asses in their post-brunch food comas. Too much cinnamon French toast and soft-boiled eggs coagulating in their bloated bellies? I'd say say, chyah!

No joke. On three separate occasions after a good Mason offensive play I literally heard my own echo shouting "OTIS! MY MAN!" No clapping. No yelling. No cheering. The only other fan that I could find making an attempt to cheer was the guy four rows down shouting D-FENSE though his little green megaphone.

I vehemently implored every lazy-assed can to do something — anything — that might resemble motivation aimed towards our players. It wasn't until about 7 minutes remained on the game that few of them got marginally "rowdy" (a pretty thin margin, at best).

It was no coincidence to me that when, finally, our cottage-cheese-filled, semi-lactose intolerant, egg-farting fans stared to make noise that Mason started to exert more will to control the game.

Yeeeeesh, Mason fans. Absolutely yeeeeesh. Never. Never again what we have a game an afternoon home game scheduled on a Sunday!

Students are too scared to have get rowdy at Mason. Everyone knows of someone who was arrested for something trivial.

 

[Jack Strop]

Students are too scared to have get rowdy at Mason. Everyone knows of someone who was arrested for something trivial.

You don't have to get "rowdy." Just put your cell phones in your purses and hollar out, "Yaaaaaayyyyyy!" "Wooooo-hoooooo!" "Otis... MY MAN!!" Simply doing that will NOT get you arrested... unless you're Chris Jollay...

... or Fro on a skateboard.

 

[Jack Strop]

MAJOR PROPS to GiantKiller and byGeorge for scolding the students (and, to a lesser extent, other fans) for "sitting on your hands" during game play. Your scathingly motivational remark,
"Get your a** up and root!!"
during the La Salle post-game wrap up video was scandously delicious.

https://giantkiller.co/ByGeorge/2019/02/10/post-game-pod/

#FILLEBA!!!

 

[psyclone]

Not sure where to put this, but the post game press conference on the Facebook page seems to have a real issue with the microphones. In this last one after the LaSalle game, for the questions being asked, the audio was pretty clear but for much of Paulsen's responses, the audio was very choppy and difficult to hear. Is there anybody who can fix this issue?

 

[dr. gunnie]

Not sure where to put this, but the post game press conference on the Facebook page seems to have a real issue with the microphones. In this last one after the LaSalle game, for the questions being asked, the audio was pretty clear but for much of Paulsen's responses, the audio was very choppy and difficult to hear. Is there anybody who can fix this issue?

I've noticed the same thing. It seems like the mic cuts off if it's not picking up a sound loud enough to record, so in between words it will cut out or any pauses. Then, when it picks back up it cuts off a fraction of the sound - it becomes very annoying. My guess is they are just using a cell phone which has that sound feature built in.

 

[mkaufman1]

I definitely agree people didn’t look into the game yesterday. They showed some of the crowd on the screen and it looked like people were there for a Kennedy center performance sitting quietly.

I don’t disagree that students should be more into the game. At the very least someone in the AD (and maybe someone needs to remind them), needs to encourage all the students to wear gold and bring back that comraderie. Put T-shirt’s and rally towels on the seats going forward (especially for homecoming and vcu)

I understand a game against lasalle isn’t going to get too many people including students hyper until closer to the the final buzzer but there should be some energy in the building. I guess people are still so skeptical on what will transpire.

 

[99 Patriot]

Agreed with most everyone. There are things we can do though. Our cheerleaders very seldom try to start "de-fense" or other cheers during the game. Simply get them to be more actice.

Also, the video board showed a video of the players asking the fans to stand up and get loud as we entered a timeout. Show those clips during game action, not when entering a break.

Yes, we'd prefer a video board not have to tell our fans what to do, but it is what it is. Whenever it says "Make Noise" or something like that you hear some noise generated. Give fans more prompts throughout and the atmosphere improves greatly.

 

[Five Two]

Having our PA announcer ask the crowd to "stand and greet your GEORGE MASON PATRIOTS!" would be a start.

 

[TweederGMU]

This has always been an issue the past few years. Students don't know how to cheer these days..... it really is sad. And have no idea how to get them more involved....its just apathy and them just looking at their phones 70% of the time.

I was waiting for the band to play Hail to the Redskins, especially when we have 5 Redskin stars in the house, but they chose to play Tecmo Super Bowl. What in the hell. I don't care if you are a Redskins fan or not but everyone in attendance should of been on their feet cheering them since they live in our community and have done things to better OUR area and community over the years. We fumbled this opportunity.

Doc Nix needs to come over more to the student section and lead them in cheers during long timeouts. Platoon members, if we still have a platoon, need to talk to the student president and see what more can be done with students cheering.

 

[Washingtonian]

This has always been an issue the past few years. Students don't know how to cheer these days..... it really is sad. And have no idea how to get them more involved....its just apathy and them just looking at their phones 70% of the time.

I was waiting for the band to play Hail to the Redskins when we have 5 Redskin stars in the house but they chose to play Tecmo Super Bowl. What in the hell. I don't care if you are a Redskins fan or not but everyone in attendance should of been on their feet cheering them since they live in our community and have done things to better OUR area and community over the years. We fumbled this opportunity.

Doc Nix needs to come over more to the student section and lead them in cheers during long timeouts. Platoon members, if we still have a platoon, need to talk to the student president and see what more can be done with students cheering.

Doc usually does come to the student section (usually in the 2nd half), but I think that hasn't happened much this season for some reason.

 

[patriotchild]

I mean let’s do some sort of Fitbit challenge. Meet your stand and activity goal, come stand and cheer at a mason game?

Each game it seems worse and worse. Another tight game and there’s no energy in the building. It’s like a Nats game where people go to socialize and don’t pay attention to the game. It’s demoralizing and frustrating.

Glad they finally had the stand up videos, but agree they were played at the wrong time.