Things Almost Got Ugly in the Hallway

[kirbivore]

I've never seen anything like it in the Dome. The hallway by the east zone (Archbold side) before kick off almost got really ugly. Too many people were trying to pass through it and there was just a mass of people. Two fights broke out and people were trying to shield old people and kids from getting crushed. It was getting dangerously close to a stadium crush type scenario. Thankfully an usher on top of the stairs to 300 level took charge and started telling people to go back the other way. People could have gotten really hurt. There may have been a medical emergency further up in front of me, i could only see people putting their hands up and hear lots of panicked yelling.

I missed the kickoff and the first possession because i had to walk all the way around the Dome the other way but I didn't even care. I was just happy to be in one piece.

 

[jgeorge322]

Here's the flaw with the "lower the seating capacity plan":

During the basketball season, every 100 level seat requires a donation. If you remove seats, you will be displacing long time donors, some of who will get bumped to the 200/300 level.

I don't want to be the ticket rep who has to tell a Premium A donor that he's being relocated to seats behind the basket, or tell a Premium C-D donor that he's being kicked upstairs.

I wonder what the number crunch is with non renews compared to the number who would get booted. If you know this is a problem in advance, you could phase it ovee a number of years. Then, tell any new premium a donor that they can have those seats for this year but likely will not be able to accomodate in future. Another option is to just sell those 100s as single seats or packages until there is enough space to handle the reduction.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

View attachment 170082

I hope they can do something similar to this picture during Phase 2 in 2022. It wouldn't take up too much additional room on the Quad side of the Dome. They could have an outdoor terrace/vendor area on the roof. Also, on the Irving Ave side of the dome they could do a much larger addition with a large entrance, food court, etc. as this is the more trafficked side of the dome through out the year with basketball being on that side.

There was talk about making the Quad side the new main entrance to the Dome, with a new expanded box office.

 

[SU68]

Code for exits and halls requires that no impediments be installed in said exits and hallways that allow less than the code minimum for those exits and hallways. It is a safety issue that should not allow any deviations. If any injuries result because of these deviations the lawsuits will be substantial. The Syracuse fire marshall should be looking at this situation.

There are always two or three fire marshals at each home game. They should be checking that instead of standing around by the Gate E entrance.

 

[Shark58]

Funny you mention that. After that debacle I woke up this morning to a credit card payment for my hoops ticket. I was stuck in that mess for almost 30 minutes. There was a lot of pushing and shoving. I felt bad for the women and kids in that mess and also the EMS workers who had to fight through the crowd to get to whatever emergency there was.

maybe they shoulda had our O line there for crowd control, that way everybody would get through

 

[TexanMark]

Define luxury rebuild.

The first plan unveiled...

 

[TexanMark]

maybe they shoulda had our O line there for crowd control, that way everybody would get through

Yowza...that is harsh LOL

 

[rrlbees]

The first plan unveiled...

Not enough money committed.

 

[TexanMark]

Not enough money committed.

I know but the faculty also pushed back from what I was told.

Why it is important to get companies like Amazon in Onondaga County...the area needs more corporate donors.

 

[OttoMets]

...
we found open seats two rows up or we would've missed all of the hof's moon shots but take out those seats and you get another few feet. every little bit would help.

Open seats? But I'm told SU counts the turnstile and the game was a sellout!

 

[jgeorge322]

Open seats? But I'm told SU counts the turnstile and the game was a sellout!

The only real empty seats i saw were in the corner, third level, above the students, it couldve been student overflow. For the most part, the place was packed. This isnt the game i would pick on the accounting

 

[OttoMets]

The only real empty seats i saw were in the corner, third level, above the students, it couldve been student overflow. For the most part, the place was packed. This isnt the game i would pick on the accounting

Busting chops, mostly. Accounting aside, it was a great crowd.

 

[Millhouse]

maybe they shoulda had our O line there for crowd control, that way everybody would get through

hey ohhhhh

 

[UnknownOrange]

The only real empty seats i saw were in the corner, third level, above the students, it couldve been student overflow. For the most part, the place was packed. This isnt the game i would pick on the accounting

Well i'm gonna

There were not over 50 thousand fans there. Why lie? A "sell out" is 49,262. Just say that then. But they can't - because it wasn't a sell out.

 

[rrlbees]

The only real empty seats i saw were in the corner, third level, above the students, it couldve been student overflow. For the most part, the place was packed. This isnt the game i would pick on the accounting

317, 322 and 303 probably had the most empty seats.

 

[orangecuse]

I know but the faculty also pushed back from what I was told.

Why it is important to get companies like Amazon in Onondaga County...the area needs more corporate donors.

If indeed there's actual truth to this, and it actually carried any weight, that's quite interesting. I have no idea how employees of this particular stature would have any 'real' sway of significance, regardless of their opinion/positions. My understanding is that the money comes from fund raising and/or the revenue generated from within the athletic department, etc., which is tens of millions more annually then when in the Big East.

Speaking of the Big East, can you imagine if the university powers that be allowed JB and other various sport program personnel/employees vote on whether they wanted to move to the ACC and the university standing by that vote? Or, if faculty had any actual say in how much the coaches should be paid? My goodness, that would be complete foolishness to say the least.

 

[FrancoPizza]

I know but the faculty also pushed back from what I was told.

Why it is important to get companies like Amazon in Onondaga County...the area needs more corporate donors.

If that pushback had any influence on the decision then heads should roll. That's a very broad but loaded statement. I'm not even sure what point there would be to even ask what the professors thought. It's not their GD business.

I hope it was strictly about $$$. Too bad we didn't have another mystery donor come forward during that process with another $25M suitcase.

 

[OttoMets]

Well i'm gonna

There were not over 50 thousand fans there. Why lie? A "sell out" is 49,262. Just say that then. But they can't - because it wasn't a sell out.

I guess of all threads this is more or less on topic here, so since you mentioned it, here's the most compelling argument that they made up the number:

a) Capacity is 49,262;
b) Every year before a Duke or Georgetown basketball game Waters or Ditota will e-mail Sala or Wildhack or someone and ask about goosing attendance by offering SRO options. SU's company line is that they won't do that (1) because of the fire hazard and (2) because there's already an extra burden on the ushers having to pull nitwits out of seats they don't have tickets for, so they don't want to invite in even more people who won't have seats.

You'd really have to be willing to suspend common sense to think that SU's risk management, the Syracuse Fire Department, and SUAD's on-the-record-as-opposed-to-SRO leadership teamed up to oversell capacity by 1,000 on Saturday night.

**To head off the "stop complaining, ya party pooper" replies, it was a fun crowd and a big crowd. It was also not a 50,000+ crowd and it's silly that SU wants to invite a bunch of humans with brains and eyes to pretend it was.

 

[OttoMets]

317, 322 and 303 probably had the most empty seats.

I think the top of 307/8 and whatever is at the very top of midfield on the north side were the only two open spots I noticed, but I couldn't see much of the south side of the building.

 

[Newhouser]

Well i'm gonna

There were not over 50 thousand fans there. Why lie? A "sell out" is 49,262. Just say that then. But they can't - because it wasn't a sell out.

That is interesting - what was the school motivation in exaggerating? The national audience doesn't care and the locals know better, why bother with the charade. It was crowded and fun and rocking - no need to spice it up.

 

[FrancoPizza]

That is interesting - what was the school motivation in exaggerating? The national audience doesn't care and the locals know better, why bother with the charade. It was crowded and fun and rocking - no need to spice it up.

My guess is it just sounds cooler to say 50 instead of 49. Can be pitched to recruits, etc. Sounds petty but maybe to some people it matters.

 

[Consigliere]

Think a decision was made at the end of the basketball season to revert to the SEC model. Announced attendance = tickets sold plus admittance passes issued. This includes virtually everyone who did have access to the building. I have been told since Coyle got here we were honestly reporting turnstile count but the department had a goal to recapture the basketball attendance crown and wasn’t going to lose out to Kentucky if they were not looking at things apples to apples.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Honestly? The only reasoning that makes sense to me is to be able to tell advertisers that X number are there on average

 

[OttoMets]

... the department had a goal to recapture the basketball attendance crown and wasn’t going to lose out to Kentucky if they were not looking at things apples to apples.

And this is fair. Probably preferable even, since one of the reasons we track attendance is for an apples-to-apples comparison across the decades. It's SOP in the industry and to the best of my knowledge SU had been using tix distributed instead of turnstile count forever before this brief change, so it'd make sense to go back to that.

*Edit: but this must have happened before the end of basketball season, what with the whole "29,000 vs. Virginia" optical illusion.

 

[llandz]

I'm not going to read 6 pages about this, but in case it was not already mentioned, for games with this size attendance, maybe start letting the crowd in earlier. Who will come in that early? Probably seniors who need extra time to walk to the seats and those with kids, and the drunks will come in later...Probably a good idea for good crowd flow and control. Maybe even a pre game something on the field or on the big screens that would keep kids entertained. Maybe show some cartoons..