Carrier Dome

Carrier Dome is a 49,262-seat domed sports stadium located on the campus of Syracuse University in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, New York. It is home to the Syracuse Orange football, basketball, and lacrosse teams. In 2006–07, the women's basketball team began playing home games in the Dome. New York high school football state championships as well as the annual New York State Field Band Conference championships are held in the stadium, as are occasional concerts.

The Carrier Dome is the largest domed stadium of any college campus, and the largest domed stadium in the Northeastern United States. Also, it is the largest on-campus basketball arena in the nation, with a listed capacity of 33,000; however, this limit has been exceeded several times.

History

Toward 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 70 years old and not up to the standards of other schools. The stadium could not be expanded; earlier in the decade it had been reduced from 40,000 seats to 26,000 due to fire codes. Therefore, Syracuse University decided to build a new stadium on the site of Archbold, which, appropriately for Syracuse's often cold weather was to have a domed Teflon-coated, fiberglass inflatable roof. When it opened in September 1980, it was made clear just how loud it was inside; that night the dome's famous nickname, "the Loud House", was coined. The inflatable roof causes the sound produced to echo many times, multiplying the loudness produced inside. It would also serve as the home for the men's basketball team, as a replacement for Manley Field House.