Axe: Local fans ready to sing ‘Take Me Back to the Ballgame’ - syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. — Maybe Marek Dolezaj won’t be lonely on senior day after all.

Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim revealed during a radio interview on Thursday that the SU senior forward recently wondered aloud to Jim and his wife, Juli, why no one could be in the Dome for his upcoming senior day.

The Carrier Dome has become the nation’s biggest classroom this spring. Why can’t fans attend games using the same safety protocols as the students?

“In the Dome you could put fans 12 feet apart, with masks, and still have 3,000 fans in there,” Boeheim said during a recent conversation on ESPN Radio Syracuse.

New York State revealed this week that arenas with capacities of greater than 10,000 can reopen on Feb. 23 under select conditions, setting the stage for a possible return of fans to Syracuse University sporting events.

Gov. Cuomo said Wednesday that large arenas can open at 10 percent capacity later this month. The Carrier Dome holds 49,250 for football games with a traditional capacity of 34,616 during basketball season.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said he expects Syracuse University will allow some students to attend the final few home games of the basketball season and that the school will look to permit members of the general public into the Carrier Dome at some point during lacrosse season.

“The Dome, I think, they’re going to open it up probably for the next games (after Feb. 23) for, I believe, students,” McMahon said. “I don’t know if their plans have changed since what we were pitching. I think there are a couple basketball games after that. In the springtime, with both lacrosse teams being excellent, I think their model will be that’s when you open it up to the public. You have the whole Dome to utilize to space people out.”

Based on current schedules, students could be allowed into one men’s basketball game (March 1 vs. North Carolina) and two women’s games (Feb. 25 vs. Boston College and Feb. 28 vs. North Carolina State).

The men’s lacrosse team plays its first home game on Feb. 21, while the women play their home opener on Feb. 27.

Students will be the only ones cheering in the building at first, but fans from the general public will be back in the Dome just in time to see both lacrosse teams make a run at a title.

“In the springtime, with both lacrosse teams being excellent, I think their model will be that’s when you open it up to the public,” McMahon said. “You have the whole Dome to utilize to space people out.”

McMahon said the ability of Syracuse University to perform its own PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests on campus will be beneficial to returning fans to the building.

Going back to the game will still present a bit of a commitment. We’re far from being back to “normal.”

But bringing a negative COVID test and perhaps proof of a vaccine to go along with your digital ticket stub and foam finger is a welcome, albeit weird, addition to the process for most fans after discovering what it felt like to have no games to go to during a pandemic.

So, take us back to a ball game. We’ll sit in a socially-distanced crowd. We’ll wear a mask if that’s what you ask.

We do care if we ever get back.

Can we just want root, root, root for a home team?

If they don’t win it’s a shame.

For it’s one, two, three dabs of sanitizer to watch the old ballgame.

And maybe wish Marek luck on his senior day?

Contact Brent Axe: Email | Twitter

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