The Carrier Dome is a 50,000-seat domed sports stadium located on the campus of Syracuse University in New York State, USA. It is home to the Syracuse Orange football, basketball, and lacrosse teams. High school football championships are also held in “The Dome,” as are occasional concerts.

	Capacity		50,000
	Opened		September 20, 1980
	Owner		Syracuse University
	Operator		Syracuse University
	Surface		FieldTurf
	Location		Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 13244
	Construction cost		$28 million USD

The Dome is served by CENTRO busses and OnTrack, the latter of which has a station one block away. Shuttle busses transport fans to and from remote parking lots.

It is the largest domed stadium on a college campus and the largest domed stadium in the Northeastern United States. Also, it is the largest on-campus basketball arena, with a listed capacity of 33,000, but this limit has been easily exceeded several times. Consequently, Syracuse University’s Men’s Basketball Attendance per game and for a single season are usually the highest in the nation.

On March 5, 2006, a new basketball attendance record was set, at 33,633, in the last regular-season game ever for Orange guard Gerry McNamara versus Villanova University.

Some notable concerts in The Dome’s past have been by Bruce Springsteen, The Police, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, The Grateful Dead, Rod Stewart, U2, Genesis, the Rolling Stones, Garth Brooks, The Who, Neil Diamond, and Pink Floyd. Each October, the dome hosts the New York State Field Band Conference marching band championships.

Billy Joel played a special sold-out concert on March 25, 2006 to help mark the Carrier Dome’s 25th anniversary. All tickets were sold for $39.50, the same price as his last solo appearance in Syracuse during 1998.

The Dome has also been the site of some tragic accidents. In June of 1999 worker Bryan Bowman was killed when he fell through the Dome roof to the bleachers 60 feet below. He had been working with a crew from Birdair, Incorporated to replace the roof. The next month an electrician fell down a 50-foot shaft while installing cables for a new speaker system. He survived with injuries to his leg, arm, back and ribs.

History

Towards the end of the 1970s, Syracuse University was under pressure to improve its football facilities in order to remain a Division I-A football school. Its small concrete stadium, Archbold Stadium, was seventy years old and not up to the standards of other schools. The stadium could not be expanded; it had been reduced from 40,000 seats to 26,000 due to the fire codes. Therefore SU decided to build a new stadium, which, appropriately for Syracuse’s climate was to have a domed teflon-coated, fiberglass inflatable roof. It would also serve as the home for the men’s basketball team, as a replacement for Manley Field House. The Carrier Dome was constructed between April, 1979 and September, 1980. The total construction cost was $26.85 million, including a $2.75 million naming gift from the Carrier Corporation. Hueber, Hunt and Nichols, Inc. was the general contractor.

It was speculated at the time that political considerations helped this project advance. The State of New York provided a $15 million grant in 1978 for the Dome’s construction. At the time Democratic incumbent Governor Hugh Carey was thought to have trouble in his re-election campaign with upstate voters. He visited the site of the old Archbold stadium and was sold by local officials and SU brass on the utility of a Dome.

Carey won re-election to a second term following the approval of Dome financing.

The Dome has been upgraded several times throughout the past 25 years. Most recently the University installed a LED video display system with 2 video boards (15′ x 25′) that are located on the east end and northwest corners of the 3rd level, along with 58 color TVs for the back rows of the 2nd and 1st levels. The inflatable roof was also replaced in 1999 at a cost of $14 million.[4]

FieldTurf was installed at the beginning of the 2005 football season, replacing the outdated AstroTurf. Additionally, the Dome also received orange paint and banners between its decks, and its corridors were lined with historic photographs of its history.

The 1981 Big East Conference men’s basketball tournament was held there, as were the 1988 and 1991 Division I NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

[ Anything to add? Spotted an error? Click here to improve this entry ]

The ACC.com - The Official website of the Atlantic Coast Conference
NCAA - National Collegiate Athletic Association website
Syracuse University
Syracuse University Athletics

[ Anything to add? Spotted an error? Click here to improve this entry ]