Welcome New AD Marvin Lewis

[GMUgemini]

The Knight commission has donor contributions for 2022 at 3.11 million.

Give me a minute and I’ll look up all of the schools. And rank them below (I’ll include sponsorship money).

OK, so can obviously only get public school records, so here we are ranked against the grand total of 4 publics in the A10

1) vcu contributions: 3.36m; sponsorships: 2.36 m: total 5.72 m
2) GMU contributions 3.11m; sponsorships 2.12m total: 5.23m
3) UMass contributions 2.9m; sponsorships: .63m; total: 3.53m
4) URI: contributions 2.14 m; sponsorships: .97m; total: 3.11m

vcu’s total athletics budget is 10m more than ours (40 million vs. 31 million) and a lot of that revenue comes from ticket sales and NCAA payouts (A10 does an excellence split, so they get a significant chunk of change more than us there). They also get an additional 3million or so of institutional support outside of student fees than we do as well.

 

[Masonfan3]

I don't think the Patriot Club does cold calls asking for money, but they do call to say thank you

I have received numerous calls from current student athletes saying thank you and then asking if I will increase my donation to the Patriot Club over the years. I have increased a few times and they still call back the next year asking for more…

 

[gmujim92]

The Knight commission has donor contributions for 2022 at 3.11 million.

Give me a minute and I’ll look up all of the schools. And rank them below (I’ll include sponsorship money).

OK, so can obviously only get public school records, so here we are ranked against the grand total of 4 publics in the A10

1) vcu contributions: 3.36m; sponsorships: 2.36 m: total 5.72 m
2) GMU contributions 3.11m; sponsorships 2.12m total: 5.23m
3) UMass contributions 2.9m; sponsorships: .63m; total: 3.53m
4) URI: contributions 2.14 m; sponsorships: .97m; total: 3.11m

vcu’s total athletics budget is 10m more than ours (40 million vs. 31 million) and a lot of that revenue comes from ticket sales and NCAA payouts (A10 does an excellence split, so they get a significant chunk of change more than us there). They also get an additional 3million or so of institutional support outside of student fees than we do as well.

Based on 700 or so PC members, that works out to average annual donation of more than $4,000. That’s actually pretty good and a lot higher than I expected.

With the size of our current and future alumni base, where Mason can really make hay is by putting in place a system to aggressively court smaller donors, similar to the collective having a $300 option.

Embrace donors and make them feel welcome even if they only can afford to give you $100. This would significantly increase our donor base and create proof of interest that the AD can then sell to local corporations. It all works together.

 

[GMU79]

Based on 700 or so PC members, that works out to average annual donation of more than $4,000. That’s actually pretty good and a lot higher than I expected.

With the size of our current and future alumni base, where Mason can really make hay is by putting in place a system to aggressively court smaller donors, similar to the collective having a $300 option.

Embrace donors and make them feel welcome even if they only can afford to give you $100. This would significantly increase our donor base and create proof of interest that the AD can then sell to local corporations. It all works together.

Make hay while the sun shines. Now there is an old timey expression! Love it!
And I am one of those small donors. Love my career, from which I just retired, but it was not a moneymaker. Anyway, I do feel good that I am a contributor. It would be great to have a growing base of "any amount helps" folks. Plus, with "ownership" comes more desire to attend games and cheer.

 

[bravesfan]

Based on 700 or so PC members, that works out to average annual donation of more than $4,000. That’s actually pretty good and a lot higher than I expected.

With the size of our current and future alumni base, where Mason can really make hay is by putting in place a system to aggressively court smaller donors, similar to the collective having a $300 option.

Embrace donors and make them feel welcome even if they only can afford to give you $100. This would significantly increase our donor base and create proof of interest that the AD can then sell to local corporations. It all works together.

Bingo. I always think about Clemson's IPTAY culture and how jealous it makes me. $40/year now (because inflation), but that sh*t adds up.

I see many alums around here (RTP) who have IPTAY decals, shirts, etc. Great model.

 

[EXpatriot13]

Based on 700 or so PC members, that works out to average annual donation of more than $4,000. That’s actually pretty good and a lot higher than I expected.

With the size of our current and future alumni base, where Mason can really make hay is by putting in place a system to aggressively court smaller donors, similar to the collective having a $300 option.

Embrace donors and make them feel welcome even if they only can afford to give you $100. This would significantly increase our donor base and create proof of interest that the AD can then sell to local corporations. It all works together.

Just saw this chart within the Patriot Club section on the athletics website, it was somewhat buried. They do have a lower tier option but I’d go out on a limb that most people have no idea this exists (myself included).

Think the AD should put thought into reimagining some of the perks at each level and also do a much better job of marketing this to alumni.

 

[gmujim92]

Bingo. I always think about Clemson's IPTAY culture and how jealous it makes me. $40/year now (because inflation), but that sh*t adds up.

I see many alums around here (RTP) who have IPTAY decals, shirts, etc. Great model.

IPTAY is a brilliant model and has created an attachment to Clemson athletics that is orders of magnitude broader than it would’ve been by just relying on fat cats.

There are thousands of kids whose parents did not attend the university, but live in South Carolina and have an “ownership” stake in Clemson football through IPTAY. What do many of those kids become? Clemson graduates and donors.

Engage Mason’s massive alumni network, make them feel valued and give them an opportunity to “buy in” for a nominal donation, provide a clear plan for pursuing excellence and any money you may give up on the front end comes back to you 1,000 fold in the long run.

And the timing couldn’t be better, now that we have a coach who literally hung the damn banner we’re all so proud of.

 

[GMUgemini]

Based on 700 or so PC members, that works out to average annual donation of more than $4,000. That’s actually pretty good and a lot higher than I expected.

With the size of our current and future alumni base, where Mason can really make hay is by putting in place a system to aggressively court smaller donors, similar to the collective having a $300 option.

Embrace donors and make them feel welcome even if they only can afford to give you $100. This would significantly increase our donor base and create proof of interest that the AD can then sell to local corporations. It all works together.

It’s also by far the most Mason has ever reported. This is by no means a baseline. It’ll be up to Marvin Lewis and the Patriot Club to keep the momentum going.

 

[gmujim92]

Just saw this chart within the Patriot Club section on the athletics website, it was somewhat buried. They do have a lower tier option but I’d go out on a limb that most people have no idea this exists.

Think the AD should put thought into reimagining some of the perks at each level and also do a much better job of marketing this to alumni.
View attachment 1794

Never seen this before. Great find!

 

[mkaufman1]

Just saw this chart within the Patriot Club section on the athletics website, it was somewhat buried. They do have a lower tier option but I’d go out on a limb that most people have no idea this exists (myself included).

Think the AD should put thought into reimagining some of the perks at each level and also do a much better job of marketing this to alumni.
View attachment 1794

Never seen this before. Great find!

I'm surprised you guys haven't seen this before, but yeah its buried.

Honestly, these benefits haven't been updated in a long time. I think the last time they updated anything was they changed the Gold Room pass from a minimum $500 to a $600 donation. The seating areas have shifted in terms of minimum donation requirements to some degree. Other than that, the same benefits have remained.

Keep in mind that I think this is specific to donating to the Patriot Club versus "Friends of Mason Basketball" or whatever sport. Usually I donate to the latter, but for season tickets they only let you do 50% up to a sport I believe. I will say, hopefully the plan for Giving Day will be a good one this year.

 

[MasonSAE4]

Kinda like your first time with your partner. They gave you a shot when had never done it before. Gotta start somewhere even if the pickings are slim.

I have it on good authority that 75% of members of these boards are virgins. You might want to reframe your reference.

 

[bravesfan]

I'm surprised you guys haven't seen this before, but yeah its buried.

Honestly, these benefits haven't been updated in a long time. I think the last time they updated anything was they changed the Gold Room pass from a minimum $500 to a $600 donation. The seating areas have shifted in terms of minimum donation requirements to some degree. Other than that, the same benefits have remained.

Keep in mind that I think this is specific to donating to the Patriot Club versus "Friends of Mason Basketball" or whatever sport. Usually I donate to the latter, but for season tickets they only let you do 50% up to a sport I believe. I will say, hopefully the plan for Giving Day will be a good one this year.

Even the most basic thing is missing on that. If I donate $100/year, the least they can do is ask my t-shirt size.

If I donate $500/year, hook me up with a quarter zip the first time I do it.

Hell all the old people love golf. Throw in some Mason branded Titleist balls at $1000.

 

[Verdad]

Even the most basic thing is missing on that. If I donate $100/year, the least they can do is ask my t-shirt size.

If I donate $500/year, hook me up with a quarter zip the first time I do it.

Hell all the old people love golf. Throw in some Mason branded Titleist balls at $1000.

As an aside, giveaway for Mason day at Nat's game this year is a quarter zip - which is probably going to get me to go based on that alone.

 

[HoopsAdmin]

Not in depth, but I’m also not the one claiming to have known about this for weeks and am celebrating the hire.

Just to address this point - I can independently verify that @By George. was on this early, mentioning to me in DMs that he was tracking Lewis as the next AD back on March 30. If you're throwing shade and doubting that he knew about this, I can confirm he did.

 

[GSII]

Just to address this point - I can independently verify that @By George. was on this early, mentioning to me in DMs that he was tracking Lewis as the next AD back on March 30. If you're throwing shade and doubting that he knew about this, I can confirm he did.

By George twitter DM's are closed. Is masonhoops the only way to DM them?

 

[HoopsAdmin]

By George twitter DM's are closed. Is masonhoops the only way to DM them?

Huh? Well, he DM'ed me, starting from a while back, so perhaps it's because we have a long running chat. I have no idea on the status of their DM availability otherwise.

 

[By George.]

Just to address this point - I can independently verify that @By George. was on this early, mentioning to me in DMs that he was tracking Lewis as the next AD back on March 30. If you're throwing shade and doubting that he knew about this, I can confirm he did.

We didn’t start out trying to break news or get inside info but here we are. I think TBlack expected me to have more details than I did. I’m working on getting an interview with him, and will get questions answered.

 

[tblack33]

Just to address this point - I can independently verify that @By George. was on this early, mentioning to me in DMs that he was tracking Lewis as the next AD back on March 30. If you're throwing shade and doubting that he knew about this, I can confirm he did.

Not shade, they said they had advance notification of the hire which allowed them to have more background on the hire — I obviously did not and so when asked why I hadn’t found the answer to all of my questions in the three hours since it had been announced I figured it would be best to ask the folks who were saying they were excited about it.

Patriot8 gave a good rundown with actual reasons he feels it’s a good hire, everyone else I’m assuming is just excited that someone was hired and less excited about anything specific they knew about Lewis before last night, which is totally fine to be excited about, but at least own that and don’t hide behind the excuse of “google it” when there is not a whole lot of substance out there on what Lewis has been involved in.

 

[Falco]

We didn’t start out trying to break news or get inside info but here we are. I think TBlack expected me to have more details than I did. I’m working on getting an interview with him, and will get questions answered.

Don’t forget to ask about football lol

 

[EXpatriot13]

Patriot8 gave a good rundown with actual reasons he feels it’s a good hire, everyone else I’m assuming is just excited that someone was hired and less excited about anything specific they knew about Lewis before last night, which is totally fine to be excited about, but at least own that and don’t hide behind the excuse of “google it” when there is not a whole lot of substance out there on what Lewis has been involved in.

Last I’ll comment on this/it’s not a pissing match, but a lot of what has been shared can easily be researched. I took the time to educate myself and look things up.

I’m not one to attack on these boards but you said you were uninspired by the hire and then cited his “2 years at Brown” and “connection to Hewitt” as reasons.

Looking forward to a potential Q&A where hopefully a lot more of our collective questions can be answered.