Dome Sweet Dome

Official Review by Dan Seward, Stadium Journey Co-Founder

In contrast to the football experience at the Carrier Dome, going to see a Syracuse Orange men's basketball game is a pretty remarkable experience. The Dome isn't flashy, but it offers a huge and enthusiastic crowd, a good selection of fairly priced food, and well"¦ you can drink in an on-campus stadium. So that's cool. After over three decades of the Jim Boeheim era and a fair amount of success, the Orange basketball team has become the de facto college basketball team to support in upstate New York. The fan base is one of the largest in the country, and during the long, quiet and dreary winters of Syracuse, an energizing and entertaining trip to the Dome really illustrates just why the Orange are so popular.

The Carrier Dome seats roughly 50,000 during football season, but for basketball the court is laid out at one end of the football field and bleachers are installed across the field, limiting capacity to about 33,000"¦ which is still a monstrous crowd for a basketball game.

Food & Beverage    4

The food experience at the Dome is actually pretty bizarre. Food varies somewhat in quality and the pricing makes no sense at all, but there's good selection and the prices are actually quite low "" except for the Burger King.

Beers are $6 "" you can have a 16oz draft of the staple Budweiser, or regional favorite Labatt Blue. If you're feeling a little picky, you can also buy a 12oz bottle (poured into a cup) of Coors or Yuengling. The beer selection is haphazard "" there are vendors every 15 feet, but you can't ever be sure what variety they're going to offer. To get Yuengling you had to go onto the Dome floor, behind the installed bleachers. Single-serving bottles of lousy Sutter Home wine are also available for a dollar more. Beer concessions are cut off after halftime so guzzle up early.

There's a wide variety of food choices on hand. Hoffman hot dogs and conies, local delicacies, are available for $3.50. However, they are cooked horribly and are served rubbery and gross. If you get a chance, visit Heid's in nearby Liverpool for a proper Hoffman "" it'll take you an hour off course, but it's worth the trip.

You can get standards such as nachos, soft pretzels, popcorn and candy for $3-$4 per. Soft drinks are a reasonable $3.50 ($5 in a big-ass souvenir cup) and bottled water is $3.50 as well. There are a several water fountains throughout the concourses which are completely serviceable, if you don't mind filling a beer cup to save the environment. Haagen Daz and Ben & Jerry's ice cream bars are $4.

Where the Dome really shines is in the "real food" category. Pulled pork or chicken sandwiches are a mind-bogglingly low $5.50. Sausage sandwiches are $4.50. Wraps are available at concessions for $5.50, but include a vegetarian option and a fancy cranberry turkey. One cart was selling fresh hot roast beef sandwiches for $6.50. There's also an Italian bistro counter that serves cheese-stuffed rotini, baked ziti, and big salads for highly reasonable prices. Burger King is the standout fast food option but it's highly overpriced with a Whopper costing nearly $10, so I'd only recommend that only in the case of a severe jones.

Atmosphere    4

Love " em or hate " em, the Orange are usually a fun team to watch and the Carrier Dome does a pretty good job of supporting the fan experience. Despite the huge size of the venue, there really aren't any bad seats "" sitting in the upper deck you can still easily follow the action. Atmosphere is largely dependent on the fan base and most games (especially once Big East conference play begins) feel like a special event. At a nearly-meaningless game against a 7-23 DePaul team, the Student section was in place 30 minutes before the game and the stadium was rocking throughout.

On the down side, the Dome's facilities are pretty old. The bench-style seats are a bit crammed "" if you're sitting next to a large person, you might be compelled to make intimate friends. It looks like you can request a clip-on seat back for your seat, but we're unsure how to do this. There are two midget-sized "jumbo"trons in the Dome; one is located at the far end of the Stadium away from the basketball court, and the other is located up in one corner over the crowd. They are tiny and hard to see. A few promotions are run throughout the game but they're generally boring and idly watched by most of the fans. The highlight was a cute race where two little kids had to run and put on full-sized basketball gear and then make a layup in order to win a bucket of KFC or something. The announcer was run of the mill, and the pep band was solid. You can buy gear including crazy orange wigs all over the venue. Because the Dome is sectioned off for basketball, it's a little strange seeing a half-empty stadium. This makes the place feel cavernous, which maybe detracts from the imposingness of the crowd, but they make up for it with sheer enthusiasm.

It's worth a stroll around the concourses to see the framed photos of all the famous people that have appeared in the Dome, from a century's worth of standout SU athletes to concerts like U2 to exhibition games (Michael Jordan has a photo here). There are several championship banners about "" most for lacrosse "" and one huge and horribly garish 2003 basketball poster that looks like it was made by a 5th grader with photo editing software. Ten retired basketball jerseys hang from the rafters, featuring great names like Sherman Douglas, Rony Seikaly, Dave Bing, and Pearl Washington.

Club 44 is an exclusive bar area in the Dome that's for season ticket holders only. If you're a season ticket holder you can buy access for $50 per game, or $1000 for the year (quoting the bouncer).

Neighborhood    4

Because the Carrier Dome is on the Syracuse University campus, the immediate neighborhood is basically non-existent. The campus is worth exploring, with unique and interesting architecture, but in the cold Syracuse winters most people won't want to bother. A 5-10 minute walk brings you to Marshall Street, which caters to the student crowd during the year "" a few gear shops and cheap restaurants get seriously packed before games. Faegan's Pub on Crouse Ave (the end of Marshall St) is highly popular, serving a wide variety of beer and decent food.

If you can go to the famous Dinosaur BBQ in the downtown area, do it. Please. For the love of everything holy, stuff your face here. Just get there early "" on a Saturday, for a 4:00 game, the wait at noon was well over an hour. You won't find better barbecue in the Northeast, and this is the original restaurant that started it all. In general, the Armory Square area of Syracuse has a plethora of really good restaurants and bars. Two favorites are the Blue Tusk and the Empire Brewing Company.

Fans    5

Syracuse Orange basketball fans are among the most loyal, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable in the country. Early-season games see crowds about half the size of late-season games. Average attendance is in the mid twenty-thousands and big games against teams like Villanova see nearly 35,000 stalwarts. The crowd is a sea of orange "" they stand at the beginning of the game and stay standing until the Orange score their first basket. The student section brings giant heads to wave at the opponents during foul shots and there's nothing more beautiful and distracting than Jim Boeheim's gargantuan mug bobbing around while you're shooting free throws.

As a Syracuse fan, I was wearing a grey shirt that said "Syracuse" in big orange letters and a string of orange beads"¦ and I still was chastised for wearing a green coat instead of orange.

At one point during the game, a DePaul player was whistled for a hard foul, but hurt himself in the process. Some lowlife rowdies in the student section chanted "asshole" at the player for a moment, but they were easily overwhelmed by the applause from the crowd when the player got up and was gingerly helped off the court.

Access    3

Parking is not great near the stadium. If you arrive a couple hours before the game, you can find street parking about a 20 minute walk away, but these spots are soon gobbled up. There are a few nearby hospitals with parking garages that charge about $15 for the privilege. For basketball games, you can park at Manley Field House on the other side of campus and get a shuttle bus. The shuttle bus fare is included in the parking fee.

If you're a big drinker, hit local brewpub Syracuse Suds before the game and catch their free bus service to the game. We didn't use this service, so no guarantees on availability and space may be limited. Check with the bar before counting on this option.

Trough-style urinals mean the men's room moves snappily along. Expect small lines at the women's room for most games; the biggest games get a bit crowded. Restrooms are plentiful on the lower concourse, but the upper concourse only has two and it's easier to go downstairs than to walk halfway around the Dome to relieve yourself.

For some reason, the signage around the Dome isn't particularly clear and if you're not familiar with the layout it may take a minute or two to find your seat. Lines for food get long at halftime, but if you're in the middle of a row it's hard to climb over dozens of people to get to the aisles, so it might be worth waiting until halftime anyway depending on your seat.

Return on Investment    4

Tickets aren't cheap, but the food is. If you're reduced to browsing Stub Hub for big-game tickets you may well pay over $100 for a seat. Bleacher seats via Ticketmaster run around $30. You can easily see a game for cheaper elsewhere, but there's also no place quite like the Carrier Dome, and the reason these tickets are so expensive is that they are in very high demand. Watching Syracuse play against quality competition (or even basement dwellers) in the Big East is an experience to remember. Once you get past the high ticket prices, you'll find that you can have a pretty good stadium meal for a very fair price - get a pulled pork sandwich, a soft pretzel, a beer and a big salad for $20-25.

Extras    5

You have to give the Carrier Dome an extra point for selling beer on campus. I'm not sure about the rules that led to this unique quality, but it's great. You can't go more than 10 feet without beer at your fingertips.

Definite points for all of the history, memorabilia and banners. If you like this stuff, you could spend an hour wandering the concourses and taking it in.

Rupp Arena in Kentucky is the only college hoops venue in the country that draws more fans on an annual basis than the Carrier Dome, but with a capacity of 23,500 Rupp can't hold a candle to the Dome's draw for big games.

Another point given for allowing local charities and community groups to run most of the concession areas "" a portion of concession sales goes to help support these organizations.

I had a hard time deciding whether to score the Carrier Dome a 4 or a 5 for Atmosphere; the reasons for giving a 4 are described in this review. But really I compromised, and moved the star to Extras. The Dome is really a remarkable place to see a game "" the atmosphere is honestly great.

Final Thoughts

It's hard not to love the Carrier Dome. It isn't flashy by any means "" in fact it's downright dated, built of ugly concrete, with uncomfortable metal benches. As an emblem of upstate NY, the structure itself has an appropriately solid blue-collar feel, simple but reliable, sturdy, and purpose-built for sports.

From the moment you step inside you can get swept up by the excitement. For a Syracuse fan it's a great place to be "" everyone inside is your friend and they know the team as well as you do. All eyes are on the game at all times"¦ even in a 50-point blowout win over helpless DePaul, the crowd stayed until the end of the game and cheered as loudly for the reserves that came on in the final minutes as they did for the regular starters. A trip to the Dome is simply worth it, and comes highly recommended.