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The 'Carrier Dome' is a 50,000-seat [1] domed sports stadium located on the campus of Syracuse University in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, New York, 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. New York's high school indoor track and field championships have also been held at the Carrier Dome.
The Dome is served by CENTRO buses and OnTrack, the latter of which has a station one block away. Shuttle buses and OnTrack trains transport fans to and from remote parking lots.

Contents

Notability

History

Trivia

External links

Notability

The Carrier Dome 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 second highest in the nation behind the University of Kentucky.
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.
On March 19, 2007, a new National Invitation Tournament (NIT) attendance record was set, at 26,752, in the second-round men's basketball game against the San Diego State University Aztecs.

Some notable concerts in The Dome's past have been by Bruce Springsteen, The Police, Prince, 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. It also hosted the 2006 New York State High School Football 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.

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.[2] 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.[3]
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]
The Dome has also been the site of a tragic accident. 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.
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.
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. In 1997, and 2005 the East Regional games of the 1997 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, and the 2005 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament were held there.

Trivia

★ A running joke about the Carrier Dome is that despite carrying the name Carrier—the world's largest manufacturer of air conditioners—the Dome is ''not'' air-conditioned. The need for this is low, as the facility is primarily used during the academic year (August-May), during most of which the outside temperatures never go far above room temperature.

★ Due to the architectural design of the Dome, indentations big enough for a person to stand in are found all along the outer wall. If a person stands inside one of these indentions and stomps the ground with their foot, a strong auditory echo can be heard, appearing to run up-and-down the height of the Dome wall. This is known as ''The Dome Stomp''.

★ During sporting events, especially during loud crowd applause, earthquake sensors located in the nearby Geology Department often register increased activity.

★ After an event, when all of the exits are open including the standard doors, a very strong wind tends to force one out of the building. This is caused by the soft inflatable roof drooping and pushing air out, and referred to as ''The Dome Effect''.

★ Syracuse receives significant lake-effect snows every winter from Lake Ontario. During periods of high snowfall, the Dome can be closed and the roof fully "deflated" to protect it from collapse under the weight of fallen snow.[5] However, modifications after installation of a new roof in 1999 allow it to reach higher temperatures. The new roof has a heating element to melt snow on contact, and has never been deflated.[6]

External links

★ ''Dome Sweet Dome'' Carrier's 100th Anniversary 1902-2002

★ History of the Carrier Dome on SUAthletics.com

★ Syracuse University Athletics

★ Ballparks.com