The dome...

[NKR1978]

This is great news. The Dome is perfect for us and is synonymous with SU. The walk to from Marshall St. through campus on the way to a game is a tradition for countless Syracuse fans. And that same walk from the Dome back through campus to celebrate a big win or drink off a disappointing loss also adds to the experience. Moving to Skytop or elsewhere off campus would have taken away from that experience.

 

[JJReddawg]

I'm not sure the ladies would want pee troughs...

Free She-Wee with your ticket. No more waiting in the ladies room!

 

[bothsocksup]

when would a renovation begin?

 

[Rocco]

If the Dome stays, that's fine. Just the paint the bleachers ORANGE already!!! It won't look as empty when there are 30-35k in there.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

If the Dome stays, that's fine. Just the paint the bleachers ORANGE already!!! It won't look as empty when there are 30-35k in there.

Don't you mean blue or gray or platinum?

 

[Rocco]

Don't you mean blue or gray or platinum?

Well the platinum matches our neutral game uni's now, so we're good!

 

[Brian Orange]

Whatever they decide they should use the renovations of MSG as a template. It's basically a brand new building and looks great.

 

[xc84]

This is great news. The Dome is perfect for us and is synonymous with SU. The walk to from Marshall St. through campus on the way to a game is a tradition for countless Syracuse fans. And that same walk from the Dome back through campus to celebrate a big win or drink off a disappointing loss also adds to the experience. Moving to Skytop or elsewhere off campus would have taken away from that experience.

What is great news?

Quinn, the senior vice president for public affairs at SU, said in a statement that based on the report issued by the workgroup, “the chancellor has publicly indicated several times that given the limited life span of the existing Carrier Dome roof, the University has approximately two years to explore options for the Carrier Dome.”

Quinn said there are three potential alternatives when looking at the future of the Dome: replacing the current roof as is, installing a new roof structure while simultaneously making other improvements or building a different stadium off-site.

SU is assessing the three possibilities as part of the Campus Master Plan framework, Quinn said.

Dougherty said that if there is an agreement, a new stadium could be built within a year.

 

[SU2NASA]

They're waiting on your check.

All of my cash is earmarked for recruiting.

 

[ImperialOrange]

Free She-Wee with your ticket. No more waiting in the ladies room!

 

[cpatrocks]

And individual seats.

This x1000.

 

[TexanMark]

I'm not sure the ladies would want pee troughs...

Not necessarily, have you ever been to Thailand?

 

[JJReddawg]

View attachment 34979

You just saw the revolutionary way to add pee troughs into the women's restroom.

 

[ImperialOrange]

You just saw the revolutionary way to add pee troughs into the women's restroom.

Right but I had NO desire to see it

 

[javadoc]

If the Dome stays, that's fine. Just the paint the bleachers ORANGE already!!! It won't look as empty when there are 30-35k in there.

More likely, I think, is replacement of the bleachers with individual orange plastic seats. Painting metallic bleachers durably doesn't sound easy.

Or they could do an alternating orange/blue on the seats. Or make one section all orange with some blue seats to spell out "SU" or "44" or whatever else seems cool.

 

[Rocco]

More likely, I think, is replacement of the bleachers with individual orange plastic seats. Painting metallic bleachers durably doesn't sound easy.

Or they could do an alternating orange/blue on the seats. Or make one section all orange with some blue seats to spell out "SU" or "44" or whatever else seems cool.

Perfect. Anything is better than what we got.

 

[OttoForLife]

Not that he would necessarily have any knowledge of it, but this is exactly what HCSS told me he'd like to see this past summer.

He said their pie in the sky deal would be to remove the bleachers and replace with seats. He said it would decrease capacity by 5-10K but said that's ok, from his point of view due to the football attendance issues. West-End expansion with added amenities for food and beverage. Retractable roof. His big deal was the seating though.

I asked if he thought the new stadium ever really had any legs to it, he said absolutely not.

It was just interesting to hear what he thought.

Not that I don't understand the realities we face as a program, but it's ing awful to know the head coach feels we need to cut seats.

 

[javadoc]

Not that I don't understand the realities we face as a program, but it's . . . . . . . awful to know the head coach feels we need to cut seats.

It's a reasonable position, from a guy who has been coaching in the local community for 6 years now and knows what's what. I used to be against it, but don't really care one way or another now.

 

[xc84]

Not that I don't understand the realities we face as a program, but it's . . . . . . . awful to know the head coach feels we need to cut seats.

If he is ok with reduced seating, it's because of the added fan benefit of getting real seats in there... not "we need to cut seating"

 

[longtimefan]

Not that I don't understand the realities we face as a program, but it's . . . . . . . awful to know the head coach feels we need to cut seats.

44,444. Perfect.

 

[Scooch]

Not that I don't understand the realities we face as a program, but it's . . . . . . . awful to know the head coach feels we need to cut seats.

The Dome was built too big for our fanbase, though. This isn't a recent phenomenon. Even in the late 80s and 90s, when we were in the midst of a great run of success with very entertaining teams and star players, we didn't fill the place each and every game.

I've always felt that 44-45K is the right size for us. If we get back to that 9+ win, top 25-level like we once had, we'd be at capacity for most games. That would in turn actually create scarcity, which would create demand for season tickets and allow the AD to maximize ticket prices -- all good things for our fiscal health.

*edit* I should add, the Dome was built at a time when the prevailing thought on capacity was "the bigger the better". That made sense when the dominant revenue stream was attendance. In a world where TV brings in more money than the live gate then the expectation for capacity changes. It's no coincidence that almost every ballpark built in the past 20 years has seen a reduction in capacity from the venue they replaced. And most new pro football stadiums have seen only marginal increases in capacity even though franchises could easily sell more tickets (think the Linc in Philly, Gillete in Foxboro, CenturyLink in Seattle, etc).

 

[GoSU96]

The Dome was built too big for our fanbase, though. This isn't a recent phenomenon. Even in the late 80s and 90s, when we were in the midst of a great run of success with very entertaining teams and star players, we didn't fill the place each and every game.

I've always felt that 44-45K is the right size for us. If we get back to that 9+ win, top 25-level like we once had, we'd be at capacity for most games. That would in turn actually create scarcity, which would create demand for season tickets and allow the AD to maximize ticket prices -- all good things for our fiscal health.

*edit* I should add, the Dome was built at a time when the prevailing thought on capacity was "the bigger the better". That made sense when the dominant revenue stream was attendance. In a world where TV brings in more money than the live gate then the expectation for capacity changes. It's no coincidence that almost every ballpark built in the past 20 years has seen a reduction in capacity from the venue they replaced. And most new pro football stadiums have seen only marginal increases in capacity even though franchises could easily sell more tickets (think the Linc in Philly, Gillete in Foxboro, CenturyLink in Seattle, etc).

Exactly, it's a live studio audience for a tv show.

You want to increase revenues, you want to bump the margin per seat up, and get people to open up their wallets by making spending easy, conveniences close, and making the experience enough to get you out of the coach or out of the bar, not maximize body count.

 

[oldpinepoint]

Exactly, it's a live studio audience for a tv show.

You want to increase revenues, you want to bump the margin per seat up, and get people to open up their wallets by making spending easy, conveniences close, and making the experience enough to get you out of the coach or out of the bar, not maximize body count.

Yes need to improve the fan experience

 

[Scooch]

Exactly, it's a live studio audience for a tv show.

You want to increase revenues, you want to bump the margin per seat up, and get people to open up their wallets by making spending easy, conveniences close, and making the experience enough to get you out of the coach or out of the bar, not maximize body count.

Yep.

It's funny that we spend so much time and energy here lamenting our attendance, when I tend to think the real issue is that we're trying to fill several thousand seats that should never have been built. I've always said that the Dome looks good when there are 42K people in the place. What if that 42K was in a venue with 44K individual seats instead of 50K spaces on silver benches? Would look even better. And the more full a venue feels the more excitement there is in the crowd. Fill the War Memorial to capacity with with 6K people and it'll feel like it's rockin'. Put 6K in the Dome and it's a morgue.

 

[KellySyracuse]

Yes need to improve the fan experience

completely agree which means you have more stands that sell craft beer, let me have an actual seat instead of a bench and make people wait in the aisle until a dead ball. If you choose to show up late or hit the head during play then you shouldn't have an option to get back to your seat until a T/O or dead ball. And for petes sake give me the option to buy better food, the nachos and bad pizza don't cut it anymore.