As Pat Campbell scurried around the Carrier Dome during Syracuse’s first two home football games, he took a look at the student section. And he liked what he saw.

A sea of orange. Jingling key chains. Satisfied students – 6,400 of them.

It was enough for Campbell – the Dome’s managing director – and the athletic department to continue general-admission seating in the student section for the rest of the season. Student season-ticket holders were notified of the decision Wednesday through an e-mail.

‘It’s been fantastic,’ Campbell said. ‘The students really got there as early as ever.’

Campbell said about 4,000 students showed up for SU’s first home game, Sept. 7 against North Carolina, and 2,400 attended the second, Sept. 14 against Rhode Island. Last year – when the Dome used assigned student seating – the highest single-game student attendance was 2,800, Campbell said.

This season’s student season-ticket total of 3,800 nearly doubles last year’s 2,000, Campbell said.

For all the students the new general-admission policy has packed into the Dome’s bleachers, the strategy’s had drawbacks.

An hour before the North Carolina game, the line near Gate E stretched to Archbold Gymnasium. To combat that problem, Dome officials purchased a portable scanning device to validate student tickets before the Dome’s doors open. Campbell said 300 students were validated before the Rhode Island game.

‘We worked out the kinks for what would move the line,’ said Shawn Hardie, Student Association vice president and a member of the Student Association Dome Task Force.

Another monkey wrench is that the student section’s lower level only seats 3,000. So if every student season ticket holder shows up for tomorrow’s game against Pittsburgh, 800 will have to sit in the third level.

The logical solution: show up early.

‘(The general-admission seating policy) has been exactly what I expected,’ Hardie said. ‘The student section gets filled.’

Published on October 3, 2002 at 12:00 pm