Two alumni walk into the Dome to watch the Syracuse Orange football team… what did they find?
Over the past few weeks, both former writer Mike Ostrowski and I (Dominic Chiappone) each had the chance to pay a separate visit to our old stomping grounds. We wanted to share with you what it was like to be in the Dome, now as graduates rather than students, and give you our thoughts on a Cuse game day: what we noticed has changed, what’s stayed the same and how the overall experience compares to a couple
years ago.
Mike: I went to Alumni Weekend and caught the game against Pitt. Unlike Dom, it was my first trip back to campus since we graduated, so I hadn’t seen the latest Dome upgrades – full seatbacks and the Victory Court – yet. I’ll get to those shortly.
After parking at Skytop and taking the shuttle over to main campus, I arrived at a very lively Quad nearly three hours before kickoff. For as quickly as the season had fallen off at that point, there was quite a crowd enjoying the perfect fall evening. The Quad Walk was done well, and the freebies scattered around were solid – special shout out to the “shots” of Dunkin energy drinks.
I entered the Dome through the Victory Court and was impressed with what I saw there. One of my largest gripes with the Dome was its (lack of) food variety, and the Court is where there is now a rotating menu item based on the visiting team. For Pittsburgh, it was Pierogi and Kielbasa – which I would have been all over if I hadn’t already eaten beforehand.
My seat was at the top of Section 113, across from the tunnel and old student section. The seatbacks are a huge upgrade comfort wise and so is having some actual legroom with your neighbors. Although I had about two sections of Pitt fans to my right, the Orange crowd still roared loudly over them throughout the first half. Most current students hit the exits at halftime, and others followed suit shortly after, but it was still a nice showing considering the state of things.
Overall, the experience was better than two years ago, even with a not so great game on the field. SU has nailed the renovation project top to bottom, and with just a few small tweaks (i.e. actual promotions instead of theme days), the Loud House could be a consistently great college football environment.
Dom: I made my trip to the Dome two weeks after Mike did. As he noted earlier, this isn’t my first time back there, but it was my first for a football game since I graduated. I had the chance to see which of Syracuse or North Carolina could do something on offense, and we know how that turned out.
The experience was definitely different, but mainly due to the weather. Kick off was at 7:30 pm and it was completely dark for hours. Combined with it raining *literally all day (classic ‘Cuse), and weather forced SU Athletics to cancel the pregame events Mike got to see.
One tiny detail I did appreciate was the towels and them being orange. They looked better compared to the old Pepsi blue ones or those green ones I used to get at basketball games. This was my first football game with the new chair seats instead of the bleachers, and the towels just really stood out in person because of the contrast.
Another small thing I liked: the graphic on the main scoreboard. In case you missed it, the image featured a jack-o-lantern, but subtly in the background was the exterior of the Dome. Definitely creative.
The biggest elephant in the room, by far, was the crowd size.
I got a decent look because I was in section 333 (top corner and to the left from where the team runs out from). The Dome was minimally filled 20 minutes before kickoff. It did the usual dance of filling up a bit more by the time the game started, but the student section looked like it only reached the 100-section. 300s felt like 65% to 70-ish% filled depending on where you were at.
Turns out, it seems like it was the lowest-attended game of the Dome all season; SU said the crowd was just over 37,000. It definitely made a difference because especially early in the game when it was close, the Dome didn’t have its usual “pop.” The obvious factors behind why attendance was low, in no particular order: Friday game instead of Saturday (could impact some families), the weather (probably turned off especially the students), Halloweekend (fans either recovering from the night before and/or gearing up for Friday night) and the team being so underwater (‘Cuse just came off losing 41-16 versus Georgia Tech the weekend before).
Whatever factor or combination of factors you choose, that was the biggest shock to me just writing this now: this was arguably the “biggest” marquee game of the year candidate in the preseason (writer’s note: three on the Nunes crew, myself included, picked it as such in January), and it wasn’t just the loss, but the way it played out, especially in the third quarter when the train really started coming off the tracks.
One thought to put out there in the Orange universe, and take it with a grain of salt: should the in-game fan experience be similar or different for football and basketball?
There’s a case to keep it the same for all sports so everyone can enjoy going to the Dome, no matter what sport you attend. On the flip side, is there a case that different experiences would lend to catering to the biggest fans of said favorite sports you choose to attend while telling new fans “hey, going to a basketball game will be unique compared to going to the football game.” Just a thought I’d be interested to see what fans had to stay.
