Carrier Dome

The Carrier Dome is a 50,000-seat sports domed stadium located on the campus of Syracuse University. It holds the title of being the largest domed stadium on a college campus, and being the largest domed stadium in the Northeast. It is home to the Syracuse Orange football, basketball, and lacrosse teams. In regards 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 exceed 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 Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, U2, Genesis, the Rolling Stones, Garth Brooks, The Who, Neil Diamond, and Pink Floyd.

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 was seventy years old and not up to the standards of other schools. 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 north-west 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.

A running joke about the Carrier Dome is that despite carrying the name Carrier, from the world's largest manufacture of air conditioners, the Dome is not air conditioned. The need for this is pretty low, as it is primarily used during the academic year (August-May), during most of which the outside temperatures never reach room temperature.