Carrier Dome
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Template:Infobox Stadium The Carrier Dome is a 51,000-seat domed sports stadium located on the campus of Syracuse University in New York State, USA. It is the largest domed stadium on a college campus and the largest domed stadium in the Northeastern United States. It is home to the Syracuse Orange football, basketball, and lacrosse teams. In regard to basketball it holds another title, being the largest on-campus basketball arena, with a listed capacity of 33,000, but this limit has been easily exceeded several times. High school football championships are also held in "The Dome," as are occasional concerts. 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.
On March 5, 2006, a new basketball attendance record was set, at 33,633, in the last regular-season game ever for beloved Orange guard Gerry McNamara.
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 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.
History
Image:CarrierDomeConstr.jpg 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 roof. 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.
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 roof was also replaced in 1999 at a cost of $14 million.
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.
Folklore
Image:Michael Moore at syracuse.jpg
- 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 in Upstate New York
- 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 roof drooping and pushing air out.