John Wildhack and Pete Sala Press Conference | Wed 9:30 AM

[upperdeck]

I know its complicated.

We have buildings with horrible wifi coverage that wont every have to deal with the volume of people.

 

[FasterCuse]

I think there is a misunderstanding here, but I am certainly not an expert. JMA, the company, specializes in software based wireless networks. The installations of JMA's antennas is complete/nearly complete. They have a 5G "radio solution" for indoor stadiums that is supposed to be state of the art.

JMA also builds all the components and antennas for these systems (the subsidiary is TEKO). They were also responsible for contracting out the install of all the DAS networks, and signing the wireless carriers.

 

[DoctahLexus]

It’s going to look different. Instead of 12,000 empty seats there will only be about 5,000. I’m anxious to see what the effect of the new seats will have on the Dome noise level.

Should hopefully be minimal. Still plenty of stone walls for the sound to bounce off of. The dome sounds crazy loud with 6k, let alone 40k. Should take more than new seats to dull the noise.

 

[CarolinaCuse]

49,057 - 42,784 = 6,723 lost seats.

 

[Qbobby]

What did Wildhack do to his leg?

Lower body injury.

 

[MadNY3]

If anyone else missed that the dome renovations would also be reducing seating capacity.

It was in the Dan Mullen thread…….

Except that at one point in reality, the seats actually were there in 2023.

 

[MadNY3]

I wouldn't blame the University on this one. They let JMA handle most of the install and getting the wireless carriers on board. Also the reason that at the last couple press conferences John Mezzalingua has sent his COO to present because he didn't want to field questions about the delayed rollout.

And Verizon, for one, was inaccurate with its stated timing.

 

[GoSU96]

What I want to know - umbrellas allowed in or not?

 

[721Comstock]

Lower body injury.

He's got an owie.

too soon?

 

[Scooch]

Official capacity is 42,784.

Perfect. It’s where capacity should have been in 1980.

 

[upperdeck]

What I want to know - umbrellas allowed in or not?

My wife was all over that. No walking in with a hat/hoodie for her

no umbrella no game.

 

[Cusefan95]

Only college football stadium in America (unless you play your home games in a pro stadium) that has seat backs for every seat.

Surprised some of the newer stadiums (Minnesota, UCF, Baylor) wouldn't also have this.

I have never been as cold at a September game as I was in Minnesota in 2012. I’m fairly sure I was sitting on a metal bench - that’s gotta be dreadful by late October/early November.

 

[sutomcat]

And Verizon, for one, was inaccurate with its stated timing.

My understanding is that the cellular coverage for the JMA Dome remains as it was at the end of lacrosse season.

Verizon installed their equipment late last fall and JMA connected it to their equipment.

So if you have Verizon, or a company that uses Verizon like Spectrum, and you have a phone that supports 5G, you should have 5G in the dome. And you should see outstanding connectivity to the Internet in the dome.

If you have AT&T or TMobile, you will continue to get a crappy LTE signal with crappy bandwidth. These companies promised to install their equipment and connect it to the JMA equipment like Verizon did, but they did not keep their word.

I was told TMobile has been trying to convince Verizon to allow them to use the Verizon equipment so TMobile customers can get 5G in the dome. But Verizon has so far declined to do this.

There still is WiFi in the dome. I know there is a project to provide high bandwidth WiFi over the entire campus but as of last spring, it was still very slow in the dome whenever there is a good crowd in the dome. I expect that to continue but maybe they upgraded the dome WiFi as part of the campus wide WiFi upgrades. I will check that out on Saturday.

I hope this is the case. If so, that would be a good way for the AT&T and TMobile customers to get decent connectivity inside the dome.

The delays getting 5G for AT&T and TMobile are totally on those two companies. Shame on them for lying to their customers and doing nothing on this for over a year.

 

[Bill Orange]

I have never been as cold at a September game as I was in Minnesota in 2012. I’m fairly sure I was sitting on a metal bench - that’s gotta be dreadful by late October/early November.

I’ll see you and raise you sitting on the cold concrete at Archbold from 1966-78.

 

[JRHEETER]

My understanding is that the cellular coverage for the JMA Dome remains as it was at the end of lacrosse season.

Verizon installed their equipment late last fall and JMA connected it to their equipment.

So if you have Verizon, or a company that uses Verizon like Spectrum, and you have a phone that supports 5G, you should have 5G in the dome. And you should see outstanding connectivity to the Internet in the dome.

If you have AT&T or TMobile, you will continue to get a crappy LTE signal with crappy bandwidth. These companies promised to install their equipment and connect it to the JMA equipment like Verizon did, but they did not keep their word.

I was told TMobile has been trying to convince Verizon to allow them to use the Verizon equipment so TMobile customers can get 5G in the dome. But Verizon has so far declined to do this.

There still is WiFi in the dome. I know there is a project to provide high bandwidth WiFi over the entire campus but as of last spring, it was still very slow in the dome whenever there is a good crowd in the dome. I expect that to continue but maybe they upgraded the dome WiFi as part of the campus wide WiFi upgrades. I will check that out on Saturday.

I hope this is the case. If so, that would be a good way for the AT&T and TMobile customers to get decent connectivity inside the dome.

The delays getting 5G for AT&T and TMobile are totally on those two companies. Shame on them for lying to their customers and doing nothing on this for over a year.

Tom nailed it

For once this isn’t on SU and it’s fully on AT&T and T-mobile

 

[richmondcuse03]

Tom nailed it

For once this isn’t on SU and it’s fully on AT&T and T-mobile

As a Verizon customer I’ve enjoyed great connectivity since they flipped theirs on last year. Made a huge difference and was great through lacrosse and spring game too.

 

[MadNY3]

Perfect. It’s where capacity should have been in 1980.

I could see why it was bigger. Syracuse was around a top 50 DMA and no sign of a Carrier or Allied Chemical pull out in the cards.

 

[hungrychuck]

I’ll see you and raise you sitting on the cold concrete at Archbold from 1966-78.

Was with you with teeth chattering for the last few years.

Was going to say in the cold rain, but I can’t rule out some snow. Even in September.

 

[Cheriehoop]

I could see why it was bigger. Syracuse was around a top 50 DMA and no sign of a Carrier or Allied Chemical pull out in the cards.

Plus Miller’s Beer built a huge factory in Fulton just before the dome opened along with a few large bottling plants. Things were looking good when the dome opened until everything seemed to fail all so quickly with so many plants closing. Miller’s was open for less than 20 years closing around 1994. Church & Dwight, Crucible, Syracuse China etc either closed or drastically lowered their production and workforce too.

 

[sufandu]

I wonder how Bball seating can stay close to 33K when you have removed so much seating in the main bowl areas? That would mean more people pushed out to the vast far edges wouldnt it?

Our record is ~35,600, so a reduction of around 2,500 seems about right.

 

[sufandu]

Perfect. It’s where capacity should have been in 1980.

I think there were enough years that averaged over 45,000 per game to justify the bigger capacity in the past. The reduction makes sense in the current climate.

 

[sufandu]

Plus Miller’s Beer built a huge factory in Fulton just before the dome opened along with a few large bottling plants. Things were looking good when the dome opened until everything seemed to fail all at so quickly with so many plants closing. Miller’s was open for less than 20 years closing around 1994. Church & Dwight, Crucible, Syracuse China etc either closed or drastically lowered their production and workforce too.

GM closing in 1993 and New Process Gear closing about 20 years later had significant impacts too. Lots of changes since it opened in 1980.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Our record is ~35,600, so a reduction of around 2,500 seems about right.

We lost a little over 8.5% in FB. So proportionally the BBall should be around 32750.

 

[Cusefan95]

GM closing in 1993 and New Process Gear closing about 20 years later had significant impacts too. Lots of changes since it opened in 1980.

Syracuse metropolitan area population in 1980 was @643K, in 2020 it was @662K. I was surprised by that, since there’s actually slight growth. It makes me wonder what median income was compared to the national average in 1980 - it was probably close to the national average inn1980 while it’s well below now. It looks like it’s not so much lack of people driving the inability to fill a 50K Dome as much as the tickets aren’t affordable for the average family anymore.

 

[orangemass]

Lower body injury.

Owie