Mason's Growing Fan Base

When 2006 graduate Dale Van Wagner started the Patriot Platoon with a group of friends, he had no idea that George Mason University’s run in the Final Four would help make the group of fans a staple of Mason basketball.

“It started as just me and my friends,” said Van Wagner, the former student body president during the Final Four run. “It wasn’t like a student group, it was just a few of us that wanted to get the T-shirts and sat in the front row. We were already the people there anyways.”

The group started in the 2003-2004 basketball season and gradually grew to an estimated 35 students the second year. At the beginning of the 2005-2006 season, the group started with approximately 50 people in the Patriot Platoon—until Final Four time.

Lindsey Campbell, group sales and ticket manager for Mason Athletics, remembers the Platoon “blowing up” in size because everyone “wanted to be near the court.”

According to Campbell, there “wasn’t a lot of buzz” prior to the Final Four season.

After Mason’s Final Four run, the university saw a surge in ticket sales, as well.

Prior to the tournament, Mason basketball games at the Patriot Center averaged 58,991 people per season and 4,533 per game. After the Final Four, the overall number of fans increased by fifty percent to 88,837 people, while the average number per game also rose to 6,834.

James Wesolek, a 2009 graduate, was a sophomore at the time of the Final Four run.

“Everyone came together, uni!ed aroundbasketball,” Wesolek said. He remembers camping out for tickets and feeling like one “big family.”

In the past four years since the Final Four, ticket sales have decreased from what they were immediately after Mason’s appearance in the Final Four, although they have stayed at a relatively stable level.

The Athletic Department is taking new steps to attract more fans to what is Mason’s largest revenue sport. Such actions include new marketing campaigns targeted at students and surrounding community members.

“The FEBFOUR” is a new offer aimed at community members and includes a package of one adult and one youth ticket to four home games in February along with two Mason hats and a coupon for a free Papa John’s pizza for $88.

The sales department for athletics has also moved away from the Final Four slogan featured on many signs the past few years.

The new slogan, “Mason Nation,” is one fans will be hearing and seeing the remainder of this season.

“It’s the main advertising slogan—it’s what Mason is as a whole,” Campbell said. In addition, the Athletic department features a Game of the Week that provides an incentive for students to come to athletic games.

The department is also trying to attract more youth basketball teams from the community to attend Mason games.

Different youth teams have also been seen during half time, running scrimmages for the fans entertainment.

With these new marketing campaigns, the Athletic Department hopes to see the number of fans increase among students and community members, including the Patriot Platoon.

With over 500 members, the Patriot Platoon is smaller than they had hoped for, but the members are still enthusiastic in their support for Mason basketball.

“Platoon is de!nitely the best place to sit,” senior communication major Jess Moore
said.

Senior theater major Phil Dallmann said the Platoon is a “great way to be more involved in the game.”

Undeclared freshman Nicole Mayaen was in search of an activity to take part in starting her freshman year. When the idea of joining the Patriot Platoon came up, it seemed to her like a great opportunity.

“I knew it was a way to get involved and to get free things too,” Mayaen said. The fee to join the Platoon is $20 and the benefits include designated student seating, a T-shirt and priority seating for post-season games.

According to Campbell, the goal “is to have as many [students] as possible, but we would love to see it grow to 800 students.”

Since the last class who was part of the Final Four season graduated, it has been a “challenge to get student leadership of the Platoon,” Campbell said.

“Mason is a special place—students need to realize that,” Campbell said. “I encourage all students to come to the games. Wear your gold shirt!”

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The above piece was published in Mason Nation: Four Years After Final Four, a magazine released this April documenting and analyzing the university's development since the Patriots' historic run in 2006, aiming to shed light on what's connected to the Cinderella story--and additionally, what's not.

Led by senior history major and Student Media veteran Rachael Dickson, the magazine's other topics include changes in men's basketball to effects on other athletics, and from player profiles of the Final Four team to the rise of the Chesapeake residential neighborhood. Gunston and the pep band also receive shout-outs.