Boeheim Wants Fans in the Dome

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim feels your pain, Syracuse fans. Orange faithful have been clamoring to get into the Dome all season, eager to cheer on their football and basketball teams. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo had prohibited that due to the pandemic, but lifted those restrictions effective February 23rd. Boeheim believes they should have been allowed in all along.

"First of all we have 30,000 seats. I don't think there should've ever been a time this year that we didn't have 10 or 20 percent of our fans in the building. I don't understand that. They're doing it all over the country. That I don't understand. You can space people out at least 10 feet and if it's a family pod or something. But you can space people out 10 feet just to get them in the building. Just so they can come in the building. People would maybe have better seats would be happy to be in the building for a game. I don't understand it. I've never understood it.

"I've never understood the whole thing with restaurants. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Eighty percent of this horrible disease is groups of people. Group gatherings of people. Close contact. Not 10 feet apart sitting at the Carrier Dome. I don't understand it and I have never understood it. We'll do the best we can, hopefully. Two thousand fans is not going to make a difference but it would be nice for two or three or four thousand of our fans to be able to see a game. It would be good for them, I think. It would be nice. But that's something I haven't understood from day one, but I'm not in charge."

Syracuse currently has one home game after the 23rd, a March 1st matchup with North Carolina, though another could be added to makeup for a previously postponed game. The women's team has two home games scheduled after the 23rd. Whether or not Syracuse University allows students and/or fans into the Dome for those games took a hit recently after some students held parties that led to an outbreak of at least 20 covid cases.

"The likelihood of that, particularly before the conclusion of the women’s and men’s basketball season, is now in question,” Robert Hradsky, vice president for student experience, said via Syracuse.com.

An official determination has not been made either way.