Syracuse, N.Y. – When Syracuse plays at Clemson today, there will be 19,000 fans in the stadium. The Carrier Dome has remained fan-less through the start of the Orange football season, but that could be changing soon.
County Executive Ryan McMahon was in talks with the school about returning fans to the stands early this month, but then a cluster of cases broke out after an off-campus party. Now that the case count has lowered, McMahon says he talks to the school every day and that they can begin again to discuss bringing student fans into the dome for football.
“We’ve gotten through that cluster and the university is doing some pretty robust testing this week,” McMahon said. “For students, we want you to be able to have these experiences.”
McMahon did not put an exact date on a potential return, but did say that he wants to try and get students in the dome for the end of football season. Ultimately, the decision to return student fans inside the dome will be between McMahon’s office, the New York state government, and Syracuse University officials.
Going to the dome is a big part of the student experience, and even if only a couple thousand fans were allowed into a game, Syracuse students would be eager to go.
“I feel like this whole year there’s been this big hole in my college experience,” Sophomore Noah Cordes said. “I’ve talked with my friends about it, at the end of the week we’re so used to gearing up and going to the dome for a game, but obviously that’s not happening this year.”
Sophomore Christian Andreoli said as long as the proper guidelines were in place, he’d feel safe attending a game.
“Of course I’d have to wear a mask and obviously they’d have to allow some social distancing,” Andreoli said. “If those requirements were put in I’d definitely feel safe to go.”
The school can hopefully resume talks on fans returning to the dome following encouraging results from the latest round of student COVID-19 testing.
