The arms race and what we're dealing with here:

[Doctor44]

We need a melo center for football, regardless of the dome. The dome is great, but when its empty its just ehhhh. If you could relocate all the football offices to the dome, and a weight room, and a team lounge, etc etc, then you might havve something.

I get that Melo started the investment, but if football is the busdriver - then $30 mil needs to go there and basketball should have gotten manley.

 

[C Bomb]

What do you call the Rutgers trophy case?

The wait room.

It's now called the antechamber to better reflect their more stately echelon of being a B1G member

 

[AluminNV]

Can't we just make the Dome our primary practice facility? Build a weight room somewhere in there? Tell M+W lax they have to go outside for their practices in the spring when we have spring ball? To be honest the mens lacrosse program has underachieved by our standards and embarrassed itself the last few years and I think practicing outside is just what they need.


You can probably find somewhere to put a wieght room and the saunas and stuff in the lower level of the dome. If not you can just build a wing onto it with that stuff the side of the Geology building. With the new field turf it won't cost us recruits. Thursday and Friday night games on TV are a must Dr Gross needs to get 2-3 of these every year and are great things to sell recruits they all want to be on TV when everyone is watching.

Marrone should be ripshit if he ever asks to use the Dome for practice and gets told no because another sport apart from MBB is using it. The girls bb can play 1-2 games a year there they are more suited to Archbold than Manley let alone the Dome.

 

[Whitey23]

Can't we just make the Dome our primary practice facility? Build a weight room somewhere in there? Tell M+W lax they have to go outside for their practices in the spring when we have spring ball? To be honest the mens lacrosse program has underachieved by our standards and embarrassed itself the last few years and I think practicing outside is just what they need.

Dislike

 

[IthacaBarrel]

First off, the notion that gameday locker rooms don't matter with regard to facilities/ recruiting is absurd... Is that why schools are constantly upgrading here? The dome locker rooms get used a lot more than just gameday and they get used by more than just the football team... IT ALL MATTERS AND ALL NEEDS TO BE UPGRADED.. Syracuse could start a 2-3 year build out of their athletic facilities and be at least respectable at that point..

As CIL and sutomcat has said, the fundrasing is attrocious up there, this is what happens when you populate the athletic department with courtesy hires, has beens, and old jocks.. Plain and simple

 

[SUalldway]

Here's a glance at a some programs in the ACC. Not that everything is posted on these sites, but it gives you a good idea of where we stand in the ACC. Where do you think we honestly stand?

UNC: http://digitour360.com/unc/football/?SPID=108097&DB_OEM_ID=3350
Wake: http://www.wakeforestsports.com/facilities/deacon-tower.html
NC St: http://www.gopack.com/facilities/murphy-center.html and http://www.gopack.com/facilities/murphy-center.html
GA Tech: http://www.ramblinwreck.com/facilities/geot-facilities.html
Pitt: http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/facilities/pitt-facilities-upmc.html (pictures don't do it justice, I've been inside it)
Maryland: http://www.umterps.com/facilities/md-byrd-stadium-football.html
Miami: http://www.hurricanesports.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=28700&id=895858&db_oem_id=28700 (poor site, but the video shows some stuff)
Clemson: http://earlycommit1.com/clemson360/hill.html (toggle the views at the bottom, weight room and training room are insane)
Duke: FSU: http://www.seminoles.com/facilities/fsu-trads-fac-campbell.html (click the videos as well)
Louisville: couldn't find anything other than some photos of Poppa John's Stadium
UVA: http://www.experienceuvafootball.com/index2.php
VPI: http://www.hokiesports.com/football/lockerroom.html#prettyPhoto

That Clemson 360 is absolutely amazing! Had to look to the corner of one upper deck to find an empty seat - probably some dudes who needed to run to the men's room to get rid of some beer. I had a Clemson family sitting right behind me during the 96 Gator Bowl. The young daughter, just before the the Clemson team was to come out of the tunnel, asked, "Where dey gonna run from Moma?"

 

[CIL]

Christ Be

The Melo Center is sweet isn't it? Every day we should thank Carmelo and the others that made it possible.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

Christ Bees, you think I don't understand that donors made the Melo center possible. That's not the point. The point is there appears to be a major breakdown in fundraising on the hill -- and someone needs to be held accountable.

My guess is you were the dad that got his daughter a fake cabbage patch kid for Christmas in the 80's then couldn't understand why she spend the whole day crying. After all, a doll is a doll, right?

 

[orangeinjersey]

Can't we just make the Dome our primary practice facility? Build a weight room somewhere in there? Tell M+W lax they have to go outside for their practices in the spring when we have spring ball? To be honest the mens lacrosse program has underachieved by our standards and embarrassed itself the last few years and I think practicing outside is just what they need.
.

Here is the problem with making the Dome or a new Dome Annex the new football complex. All the players live on South Campus. Now, if SU wanted to foot the bill for new dorms next to the Dome, then it could be possible. I read somewhere that its illegal to have special athletics dorms, but I saw a video with coach cal touring the UK basketball dorms, and well it looked more like a hotel, than an apt on Winding Ridge Rd. Also, Syracuse plays 6-7 games outside, they have to practice outside too, so are we going to build a few outdoor fields near the dome too? Because that would also have to be in the plan. The last reason why this wont work is, the dome will be 33 years old this September. If the school has any inkling of replacing this facility in 5-10 years it would be dumb to dump 10's of millions of dollars into it.

 

[Orange&Blue44]

Someone should e-mail a link to this thread to the entire BofT ...don'tcha think?

 

[AluminNV]

Here is the problem with making the Dome or a new Dome Annex the new football complex. All the players live on South Campus. Now, if SU wanted to foot the bill for new dorms next to the Dome, then it could be possible. I read somewhere that its illegal to have special athletics dorms, but I saw a video with coach cal touring the UK basketball dorms, and well it looked more like a hotel, than an apt on Winding Ridge Rd. Also, Syracuse plays 6-7 games outside, they have to practice outside too, so are we going to build a few outdoor fields near the dome too? Because that would also have to be in the plan. The last reason why this wont work is, the dome will be 33 years old this September. If the school has any inkling of replacing this facility in 5-10 years it would be dumb to dump 10's of millions of dollars into it.

Good response. Even if they build new dorms I doubt players would want to live in that part of campus over south Brewster Boland isn't desirable or the one closer to ESF I forget the name I think athletes like South and its probably a recruiting plus since they are out of the way over there. I thought about the distance from South Campus but classes are closer to the dome of course than Manley and most do go to class before practice/lifting/film. I don't expect the Dome to be replaced in my lifetime (in my 20s) there is no way SU could afford it if they can't cough up 30 mil to build a legit football practice facility and I think at least half of the BCS schools have state of the art ones or close to it. I can see the dome being renovated where the stands on half of it are somewhat rebuilt with better and bigger luxury seating (so the 200s on the basketball end being turned into cushy luxury seats and that continued out past the 50 yardline for fb to the opposite goal line) but that is all that would ever occur a new structure will never be put in its place.

*I didn't put this in my post and should have...making the Dome the practice facility and making it state of the art, and giving football the run of the place might send the correct message that football is SU's #1 and most important sport.

Any FB practice facility must be done so that its one of the top 5 in the nation. If you don't do it correctly its a waste of money. Unfortunately that means the best part of 50 mil.

I think you could possibly knock down Archbold and rebuild something that is both the football complex/annex and general gym for the campus and kill 2 birds with 1 stone and have things be state of the art for recruits. Obviously regular students wouldn't use the FB part of it but Archbold kind of stinks and is worth replacing and you might get more access to other funds if you're building something that all students will use.

 

[kingottoiii]

3/4 of those teams we do not recruit against. Kids outside of the NE go to SU to either get away or because they are over looked. Facilities for them isn't the major factor. Kids in the NE are under recruited and do not get to calls from schools with the nice digs. We are comparable to who we recruit against. We need to improve what we have and it needs to be done within the next few years. But let's not compare SU to schools we do not recruit against. FSU and Clemson can buy small islands in the Caribbean and it won't effect our recruiting. If Marrone's issue is we are losing kids to the FSUs and Clemsons then the problem is his strategy as we will never be able to get many of those types of kids.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Can't we just make the Dome our primary practice facility? Build a weight room somewhere in there? Tell M+W lax they have to go outside for their practices in the spring when we have spring ball? To be honest the mens lacrosse program has underachieved by our standards and embarrassed itself the last few years and I think practicing outside is just what they need.

They already practice outside.

They have a dedicated field right next to the two football practice areas.

Oh Lord

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Here is the problem with making the Dome or a new Dome Annex the new football complex. All the players live on South Campus. Now, if SU wanted to foot the bill for new dorms next to the Dome, then it could be possible. I read somewhere that its illegal to have special athletics dorms, but I saw a video with coach cal touring the UK basketball dorms, and well it looked more like a hotel, than an apt on Winding Ridge Rd. Also, Syracuse plays 6-7 games outside, they have to practice outside too, so are we going to build a few outdoor fields near the dome too? Because that would also have to be in the plan. The last reason why this wont work is, the dome will be 33 years old this September. If the school has any inkling of replacing this facility in 5-10 years it would be dumb to dump 10's of millions of dollars into it.

Well, there's all that unused space on the Quad.

 

[rrlbees]

Christ Be

Christ Bees, you think I don't understand that donors made the Melo center possible. That's not the point. The point is there appears to be a major breakdown in fundraising on the hill -- and someone needs to be held accountable.

My guess is you were the dad that got his daughter a fake cabbage patch kid for Christmas in the 80's then couldn't understand why she spend the whole day crying. After all, a doll is a doll, right?

I absolutely agree that the fundraising is a mess. Never said it wasn't. The quesion is why? I have already said this before, but I know there are people that work this hard and they aren't just sitting on their duffs. I know Marrone himself hs worked it hard and met with people. If you have ever heard Marrone speak, he is very passionate and a great speaker and can be very convincing. But the results have been fair to poor. Why? That's the $64,000 question.

Did we lose big supporters when P was let go? I know there used to be a few guys that I considered "big donors" that were always around the program. I haven't seen them in years. I can go to an NCAA basketball game and I see many of the same people I have seen for 40 years. I know they are big supporters of the basketball program and JB. Maybe JB being here forever helps with that? I also had heard of a couple guys that were willing to put up some money after P was let go but that was contigent upon Edsall being hired. They were even going to pay for buyouts. Don't know what happened to them either. They must have just been Edsall or no one guys. There was some guy from Rochester that was going to sink money into the program. He disappeared too.

I have no idea why it has been so difficult for SU. TGD, Marrone and others to identify and culitvate the type of people you need to have either naming rights to a facility or at least make a significant donation. But I also know that even on the basketball side or athletics in general, that we have often done things without really having all the money identified and that has caused angst and issues on the hill.

We'll see if people step forward or SU gets creative.

 

[orangeinjersey]

Good response. Even if they build new dorms I doubt players would want to live in that part of campus over south Brewster Boland isn't desirable or the one closer to ESF I forget the name I think athletes like South and its probably a recruiting plus since they are out of the way over there. I thought about the distance from South Campus but classes are closer to the dome of course than Manley and most do go to class before practice/lifting/film. I don't expect the Dome to be replaced in my lifetime (in my 20s) there is no way SU could afford it if they can't cough up 30 mil to build a legit football practice facility and I think at least half of the BCS schools have state of the art ones or close to it. I can see the dome being renovated where the stands on half of it are somewhat rebuilt with better and bigger luxury seating (so the 200s on the basketball end being turned into cushy luxury seats and that continued out past the 50 yardline for fb to the opposite goal line) but that is all that would ever occur a new structure will never be put in its place.

*I didn't put this in my post and should have...making the Dome the practice facility and making it state of the art, and giving football the run of the place might send the correct message that football is SU's #1 and most important sport.

Any FB practice facility must be done so that its one of the top 5 in the nation. If you don't do it correctly its a waste of money. Unfortunately that means the best part of 50 mil.

I think you could possibly knock down Archbold and rebuild something that is both the football complex/annex and general gym for the campus and kill 2 birds with 1 stone and have things be state of the art for recruits. Obviously regular students wouldn't use the FB part of it but Archbold kind of stinks and is worth replacing and you might get more access to other funds if you're building something that all students will use.

This may be true, i mean, when was the last time they replaced the roof? I know they did the summer of 99. Have they done it since? That alone is a ~$20M upgrade i think. The Carrier Dome is not that fancy. I mean, if they simply changed out the aluminum seating, and added a new annex with some modern amentities, that would work fine.

Just to note, I am looking at a list of domed stadiums in the US, and I think the Carrier dome may be the oldest. Only East Tenn St's 9k seat dome is older (1977), UNI Dome (1976), Dakata Dome (1979), Holt Arena (1968) Kibbie Dome (1975) and the NAU Walkup Dome (1977). These are all clones of Manley (some bigger, some smaller). If we are talking Legit domed football stadiums, the Metrodome is newer than Carrier, leaving the Astrodome as the only older facility.

I agree its not looking good for SU gettinga replacement unless ome rich alum leaves us a check for 100 mill to get one started.

 

[Scooch]

Seems like big monied donors just simply care more about hoops.

 

[bnoro]

Can't we just make the Dome our primary practice facility? Build a weight room somewhere in there? Tell M+W lax they have to go outside for their practices in the spring when we have spring ball? To be honest the mens lacrosse program has underachieved by our standards and embarrassed itself the last few years and I think practicing outside is just what they need.


You can probably find somewhere to put a wieght room and the saunas and stuff in the lower level of the dome. If not you can just build a wing onto it with that stuff the side of the Geology building. With the new field turf it won't cost us recruits. Thursday and Friday night games on TV are a must Dr Gross needs to get 2-3 of these every year and are great things to sell recruits they all want to be on TV when everyone is watching.

Marrone should be ripshit if he ever asks to use the Dome for practice and gets told no because another sport apart from MBB is using it. The girls bb can play 1-2 games a year there they are more suited to Archbold than Manley let alone the Dome.

There isn't room in the dome to store the blue flooring they put down for basketball. During the offseason that gets piled into the rooms they use for press conferences. There is literally not an extra foot of space in the Dome.

Not to mention the Dome as an everyday practice venue is impractical since it's so far from Manley.

 

[SmilinBob]

Seems like big monied donors just simply care more about hoops.

Everybody loves a winner and if we can continue this success in football hopefully it'll wake up some of those dormant wallets.

 

[orangeinjersey]

There isn't room in the dome to store the blue flooring they put down for basketball. During the offseason that gets piled into the rooms they use for press conferences. There is literally not an extra foot of space in the Dome.

Not to mention the Dome as an everyday practice venue is impractical since it's so far from Manley.

this.

I worked in the dome every year during my undergrad. There was ZERO space available in the late 90's/early 00's, I highly doubt there is any space today. Those press rooms look like your uncles garage when not used for press events.

 

[Scooch]

Everybody loves a winner and if we can continue this success in football hopefully it'll wake up some of those dormant wallets.

The challenge is that it is a TON easier to compete at the highest levels in hoops without first-rate facilities. I refer you to Gonzaga, Butler, Creighton, and every non-football playing school of the Big East as examples.

How many top 10 football programs exist that haven't made significant investments in facilities?

 

[SmilinBob]

The challenge is that it is a TON easier to compete at the highest levels in hoops without first-rate facilities. I refer you to Gonzaga, Butler, Creighton, and every non-football playing school of the Big East as examples.

How many top 10 football programs exist that haven't made significant investments in facilities?

I agree with you, hey I'm a football guy as well and it's beyond frustrating to be searching for pennies on the street to pay for stuff to help this team get a decent setup.

That said my opinion on having too much stuff for players can make them soft to a point as well. Yes, get the necessary equipment and update but sometimes the bells and whistles these "schools" have is just way too over the top.

 

[Whitey23]

Here is the problem with making the Dome or a new Dome Annex the new football complex. All the players live on South Campus. Now, if SU wanted to foot the bill for new dorms next to the Dome, then it could be possible. I read somewhere that its illegal to have special athletics dorms, but I saw a video with coach cal touring the UK basketball dorms, and well it looked more like a hotel, than an apt on Winding Ridge Rd. Also, Syracuse plays 6-7 games outside, they have to practice outside too, so are we going to build a few outdoor fields near the dome too? Because that would also have to be in the plan. The last reason why this wont work is, the dome will be 33 years old this September. If the school has any inkling of replacing this facility in 5-10 years it would be dumb to dump 10's of millions of dollars into it.

Kentucky has to allow for a certain # of students from the general population to live in the bball dorm along with the players. I'm not sure if student managers and walk ons count.

 

[SmilinBob]

Kentucky has to allow for a certain # of the general population to live in the bball dorm along with the players. I'm not sure if student managers and walk ons count.

How about World Wide Wes, does he get a suite?

 

[orangeinjersey]

How about World Wide Wes, does he get a suite?

I remember how tight WWW and Jonny Flynn were after Jonny declaed for the draft. I wonder if they are still tight now that Flynn is playing in the pacific rim.

 

[CIL]

3/4 of those teams we do not recruit against. Kids outside of the NE go to SU to either get away or because they are over looked. Facilities for them isn't the major factor. Kids in the NE are under recruited and do not get to calls from schools with the nice digs. We are comparable to who we recruit against. We need to improve what we have and it needs to be done within the next few years. But let's not compare SU to schools we do not recruit against. FSU and Clemson can buy small islands in the Caribbean and it won't effect our recruiting. If Marrone's issue is we are losing kids to the FSUs and Clemsons then the problem is his strategy as we will never be able to get many of those types of kids.

I agree with you that we need to improve what we have. So far we have done a medicore job at best with that. However, there are also a lot of assumptions in your post, and I strongly disagree with a lot of them.

• "3/4 of those teams we do not recruit against" -- I would add that we do in fact recruit against a decent chunk of them, and will be recruiting against most of them in the future. Teams tend to recruit against teams from within their conference. That is an undeniable fact. Currently our biggest competitors as it stands right now are Penn ST, Pitt, RU, UCONN, and probably BC. 4 out of the 5 are in a major BCS conference. Take a kid like Gus Edwards, who is the type of high 3 star lengthy athlete we need more of. Offers from SU, BC, Uconn, Maryland, Miami, FSU (supposedly but I have my doubts), Pitt, Purdue, RU, temple, UCF, and UVA. Throw out FSU and that's 5 ACC schools. In our heyday we ran up against UVA (Ogletree, Ferguson), MD, and VPI all the time.
• "Kids outside of the NE go to SU to either get away or because they are over looked. Facilities for them isn't the major factor." -- I can't tell if this is serious or not. My guess is it is. We certainly aren't going to get 4 or 5 star recruits from GA or FL hand over fist. I get that, but once again, at our zenith we landed some very solid recruits from FL (Abrams, etc.). WVU was able to land Geno Smith from Miami who had offers from bama, Clemson, LSU, Mich, etc. Same for Teddy Bridgewater at the Ville. It happens.
• "Kids in the NE are under recruited and do not get to calls from schools with the nice digs." -- This is patently false. Tell that to Ishaq (ND), Ebo, Easley (UF), Gronkowski (Zona), Daquan Jones (PSU), Skov (Standford), Dukes (PSU), Paulus 1 and 2, etc. That's just NY. The top two kids in Mass last year went to Ohio St. Don't get me started about Pennsylvania or New Jersey, who send kids to major powers year in and year out.
• "We are comparable to who we recruit against" -- Okay, so let's take the ACC and plug in regional rivalries instead.

1. RU: http://www.scarletknights.com/football/stadium/hale.asp
2. Pitt: http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/facilities/pitt-facilities-upmc.html (note: they have their own massive locker room at Heinz as well, state of the art)
3. PSU: http://www.gopsusports.com/facilities/lasch-building.html
4. UCONN: http://www.uconnhuskies.com/facilities/burton-family-complex.html
5. BC: http://www.bceagles.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/yawkey-centerNEW.html
6. WVU: http://www.wvusports.com/page.cfm?section=7924

Out of that list, I'd say the only one we are superior to is BC at this point in time.