Mason Homecoming, Sans Mechanical Bull
As someone who once brought some washed-rind artisanal cheese and craft beer to a NASCAR parking lot for the pre-race festivities, I'll admit to being slightly biased in favor of tailgaters, especially tailgaters whose idea of a proper tailgate involves giant tricycles and rented mechanical bulls. Which is why my interest was piqued by all this talk of a mild tailgating controversy at George Mason, where policies about alcohol consumption at tomorrow's homecoming led a group of alumni to organize a separate party at a local bar. A party that will attract 400 or 500 people, will feature a raffle involving airline tickets and resort stays and $50 bills and "Reno 911!" impersonators, and is being organized by a guy who calls himself "a red-blooded Caucasian male" and gives the following quote: "We're not 20 years olds, we're not 19; we're grown-[up] men that make six figures and drive big cars. I'm gonna listen to these guys tell me when and where I can have a cold beverage? Unacceptable."
That was Greg Brown, a Founding Father of the Fairfax Social Club, a group of red-blooded 30-something Mason grads who have followed the basketball team for years, through the days when the arena was mostly empty and the tailgating rare and the Final Four berths even rarer. Mason used to organize its homecomings around soccer games; Greg, being a red-blooded Caucasian male, wasn't down with that because, as he so aptly puts it, "who in the blue hell wants to watch a soccer game?" So nine years ago, the FSC and other groups of alums began tailgating in the dead of winter before basketball games, and the FSC began holding more and more elaborate parties, parties which involved amusement park-style race cars and visits from GMU President Alan G. Merten and great quantities of red-blooded dead animals.
Then, this winter, word started trickling out that, as the school's Homecoming site says, "Beer and wine will be available for purchase only. No BYOB."
"Kind of a slap in our face," said Mike McNutt, another FSC Founding Father.
"I couldn't believe this to be true," Brown said.
This led to message board threads. And more message board threads. And online petitions, based on a letter Brown wrote to everyone affiliated with the school he could think of.
The FSC guys say it wasn't so much the alcohol rules, which stipulate that beer can only be bought from official vendors; it was the feeling that they had lost control over their tailgates and their parties. I asked Brown what made them so angry, and he had a ready answer.
"Freedom," he said. "Without sounding like Mel Gibson from 'Braveheart.' Like I said in my letter, I'm smart enough to earn a degree from the school, but I can't monitor my own alcohol intake, and they're going to turn it into a profit center? The only other person that I can imagine doing this? Dan Snyder."
So anyhow, when he didn't like the responses he got from the organizers, he and his FSC chums "said, 'Hey, let's start thinking about Plan B'," according to McNutt. "We just wanted to throw a party, and we just felt if we did it under their rules we wouldn't be in control. We wanted control, because we know we bring the goods."
So even though they had planned to rent a mechanical bull this year, they decided to take their party inside. They started soliciting donations, through work contacts and personal contacts and what Brown called "hustle." They started a Web site. CAA blogger and book author Michael Litos signed up to do a book signing. Word spread and interest grew.
"We did this off MySpace and Evites and word of mouth," McNutt said.
"I got pissed off and tapped into a reservoir of people that were saying, all right, maybe Brown's got a point'," Brown said.
The party's at Brion's Grille tomorrow, starting at noon. Brion Sumser, the owner of Brion's, said he has a great relationship with the university, that he's not trying to get in the middle of this dispute, and that he just wants to enhance the homecoming weekend. "This is not an adversarial party," he said. "I would never do anything to embarrass an institution that's been so good to me."
The school's official Block Party starts at 12:30 (theme: Green 'N Gold, Never Fold), and will feature a most-spirited fan contest, a pie-eating contest, postgame fireworks and an open skate at an ice rink. But the Brion's Grille event made it into the Patriot Club newsletter, and there will surely be people who go to both events.
As for the FSC guys, they say they're absolutely against under-aged drinking, and they acknowledge that this isn't the most important issue in the world, but they're still a bit excited by what they started.
"It's fairly comical at the end of the day that we're having this conversation, but you know, it's what ties us all together," Brown said. "It struck a chord with us, so we reacted."
"It kind of grew to a point where you're talking to us right now about a homecoming party 12 guys put together at a restaurant," McNutt said. "It just happened to become a monster."
By Dan Steinberg |
February 16, 2007; 4:49 PM ET
| Category:
College Basketball
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Posted by: littles | February 16, 2007 05:14 PM
My homecoming wish... a giant sign pointed across Braddock Road giving Mason the middle finger. Enjoy your beer garden, pennypinchers!
Posted by: I wish... | February 16, 2007 05:27 PM
I find it interesting that this could be the best thing to happen to Mason's Homecoming. It forced us all to think outside of the box and grow the opportunities to celebrate something we all love GMU Basketball and the University.
Think about it, UVA doesn't have control over all of Charlottesville and the hundreds of parties for their homecoming. They embrace and work with those groups and see it as a way to promote to even more people a good time and traditions centered on a public University and it's surrounding community of citizens and commerce.
All I'm sure George Mason and Thomas Jefferson would be proud. If not go tell the tailgaters at a UVA game they can't put on their lavish efforts. I of course wouldn't recommend doing it.
Posted by: ZM | February 16, 2007 05:38 PM
Wow, you see what Dan Snyder started? Now a grown man can't even enjoy a quality beer before a game. Good for the FSC... how do I join?
Posted by: Diggler | February 16, 2007 05:39 PM
Amen to the FSC. Keep fighting the good fight. And screw you mason!
Its a huge slap in the face that once a year we can't even come back to our alma mater and enjoy our own cold beverages in the friendly confines of our once home. Mason amazes me once again. Way to piss off alumni.... AGAIN AND AGAIN!
Posted by: Mike | February 16, 2007 07:06 PM
Amen to the FSC. Keep fighting the good fight. And screw you mason!
Its a huge slap in the face that once a year we can't even come back to our alma mater and enjoy our own cold beverages in the friendly confines of our once home. Mason amazes me once again. Way to piss off alumni.... AGAIN AND AGAIN!
Posted by: Mike | February 16, 2007 07:07 PM
Amen to the FSC. Keep fighting the good fight. And screw you mason!
Its a huge slap in the face that once a year we can't even come back to our alma mater and enjoy our own cold beverages in the friendly confines of our once home. Mason amazes me once again. Way to piss off alumni.... AGAIN AND AGAIN!
Posted by: Mike | February 16, 2007 07:08 PM
The FSC has done it!!! Congrats!! See you all tomorrow at the Grille!
Posted by: KMB | February 16, 2007 09:05 PM
I'm all for a party. I just find it funny the "...grown-[up] men that make six figures and drive big cars" are worried about paying $7 for a beer.
I'm going to ride that bull like Luke Perry in 8 seconds full of Brion's Grille $4 beers!
Posted by: green booger | February 17, 2007 09:08 AM
I'm all for a party. I just find it funny the "...grown-[up] men that make six figures and drive big cars" are worried about paying $7 for a beer.
I'm going to ride that bull like Luke Perry in 8 seconds full of Brion's Grille $4 beers!
Posted by: green booger | February 17, 2007 09:10 AM
"Love GMU Basketball"?????
The Patriot Center was empty last year and for years prior.
The basketball team wakes up the day after "Selection Sunday" last year and the entire nation is biotching about GMU getting in the tournament. They go on a good 4-game run (but keep in mind, having two games AT HOME in the D.C. area in the tournament helps) and now people "LOVE GMU Basketball"?
Give me a break
Posted by: caphcky | February 18, 2007 01:33 PM
"Love GMU Basketball"?????
The Patriot Center was empty last year and for years prior.
The basketball team wakes up the day after "Selection Sunday" last year and the entire nation is biotching about GMU getting in the tournament. They go on a good 4-game run (but keep in mind, having two games AT HOME in the D.C. area in the tournament helps) and now people "LOVE GMU Basketball"?
Give me a break
Posted by: caphcky | February 18, 2007 01:34 PM
caphcky,
did you get waitlisted at mason or something? you're an angry little man.
Posted by: bryc3 | February 19, 2007 09:36 AM
Not mad at all!
Just LAUGH OUT LOUD when I've sat in an empty Patriot Center and they play a half dozen games to get to the final 4 and NOW its a NATION.....roflmao
Its a bandwagon and with their record this year, its making ALOT of stops to let so-called fans off.
Posted by: caphcky | February 19, 2007 11:37 AM
Tell that to the 9,073 fans that came out Saturday for the Kent State game! Sure, the Pats aren't exactly tearing it up righ t now, but the fans keep coming.
Posted by: caazone | February 19, 2007 12:48 PM
9,073 fans?????
ROFLMAO......"We're the Mason Community"!
ROFLMAO
Kent State??????????
ROFLMAO
Posted by: caphcky | February 19, 2007 02:49 PM
Caphcky,
Don't know you, don't care to. The producers of the party have watched Mason games since the mid 90s, when we were all students there. Yes, there are bandwagoners for everything and anything, but please read the blog, that is not what this was all about.
Mason leads their conference in attendance this year, can your beloved caps ever fill out the Verizon Center, even half of it?
Posted by: FSC | February 20, 2007 10:08 AM
Thank YOU!
They are BANDWAGONERS and I responded to a comment within the blog. Thanks for helping make my point.
So is the Mason Nation gonna hang a banner for attendance like the Mystics do?
I thought leading the conference in WINS was the goal up there?
huh.......
Don't even have to respond about the Caps attendance....lol at least until they start calling it Cap Nation....ROFLMAO
Posted by: Caphcky | February 20, 2007 10:18 AM
Lets see, for the past 12 months every sporting event has asked 'who will be this year's George Mason?' Executed the best underdog run since USA Hockey. What would ever lead somebody to ask "who will be this year's Capitals?"? I guess there are plenty of defunct franchises doomed for failure in towns that don't want them but that isn't much fun to talk about. There are more people in America that know who GMU is now than even know hockey is back playing. Leonsis would start paying for bandwagoners if he could find some. Pound sand.
Posted by: Mason Lover | February 20, 2007 05:15 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
#1 that NASCAR stuff is so classic, I can never see that enough
#2 what's wrong with organizing homecoming around a soccer game, The Bullis School did it for years with great success!