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Syracuse Athletics announced a new re-seating plan for the JMA Wireless Dome Wednesday, which includes available ticket pricing and seat maps for new chairback seats.

The University first announced the change from bleacher seats to chairback seats back on Dec. 8, 2022, stating the plan would be “done ahead of the start of the 2024 football season.”

“The new seats will improve fan comfort and accessibility,” SU athletic director John Wildhack said in a statement. “In anticipation of the new seating, we will begin the ticket sales and re-seat process for 2023-24 next month. The process will prioritize fan loyalty and fan experience.”

Torrey Ball, a former Syracuse defensive end and now a deputy athletics director who came back to Syracuse last July, has been an advisor for the Dome revitalization project. He mainly focused on the operations and communication to the fans. Ball said he learned in his previous work at schools like Oregon, Virginia and Nebraska that communication with the fanbase is essential.

“We just assumed that our fans would understand it and we didn’t communicate as well as we should have,” Ball said of his prior experience at Nebraska. “That’s the one thing that I took from there…Any process that I’m a part of doing this, we’re going to communicate effectively.”

Ball said he heard back from ‘Cuse Fan Council as well about a need for communication on the revitalization project. He touched on how SU Athletics sought out Otto’s Army for feedback about what it would want to elevate the experience in the Dome. According to Ball, the group wanted a bigger student section. And there has certainly been a change on that front.

Beginning with the 2024 football season, the student section will relocate from 102-108 and 304-307 to sections 119-127 and 325-330 in the east end zone. This will increase the student-section capacity to the largest in modern Dome history with 5,541 seats.

The change is only for football as Otto’s Army will remain in the same location for all other sports that take place in the Dome. In the statement, SU Athletics said the change will improve seating and amenities due to its proximity to the student entrance at Gate F and the new Micron Victory Court.

As part of the change, the SU marching band will also relocate to the east end zone. Ball said he consulted with Director of Athletic Bands Timothy Diem about keeping the band and the student section together.

Ball said the configuration of the student section should be “more memorable.” He envisions whenever a player scores a touchdown, they could perform a “Lambeau Leap” into the SU student section. He said if the student section was like one of his most memorable plays in college, there would’ve been a different celebration.

“I made a tackle for loss on the 1-yard line in that same end zone,” Ball said. “I mean, imagining that same play with the student section there, I promise you it would have been a lot different.”

Published on January 17, 2024 at 5:54 pm

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