What a glorious day November 10, 2012 was at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse New York. That was the day, which was actually yesterday, the Syracuse Orange lived up to the expectations most of us felt they deserved at the beginning of the season by beating 8th, 9th, or 11th-ranked Louisville (depending on which ranking service you believe) 45 – 26 in a glorious game that had me up screaming with the masses and high-fiving anyone I could find.

It had been a few years since I’ve been to the Dome for a game, and I noticed there were a lot of changes. For instance, the scoreboards are drastically different. The big scoreboard I had seen before when I was at the Dome for the Dalai Lama presentation. The little scoreboards that go around the stadium between the second and third levels I hadn’t really noticed as much before, thinking it was something that was only in a corner and not realizing that it went around the entire stadium. That was kind of cool, although a couple of times when they were trying to get the crowd into the game they would remove that, and it took me a while to remember to look up at the big scoreboard to find out what was going on.

Another change seems to be in the concession area. I didn’t necessarily mind spending $3.50 for a hotdog, but the hotdogs have changed. I think I remember somewhere along the way that they changed hotdog vendors a couple of years ago, and they must have gone for cheap without reducing the price because I didn’t like it. I did like the cotton candy, as I seem to have this thing for cotton candy, and diet soda is diet soda.

I was up in section 315, courtesy of free tickets from the Habitat for Humanity people, and I can’t complain about the view. It seems to work better being that high up for football as opposed to the basketball games, and I was in a perfect place for the first quarter heroics and the end of the game stops against Louisville.

The crowd was really into it, although it did seem to wait until the fourth quarter before the cheerleaders came our way. Then again, if the cheerleaders had to inhabit different areas during the game there are only four quarters and four different areas to inhabit. Yet, the Louisville cheerleaders were in our corner the entire time; I didn’t mind at all that much. 🙂

I have to say that we’re lucky to have something like an exterior dome in our town so that we’re not sitting outside in cold weather. At least yesterday wasn’t so bad, but we know what central New York weather can be like. It was very comfortable in the Dome, and even though I had to survive a heart attack that wanted to come because of the long steep walk up to the Dome, there’s no place like it in the nation and I’m proud to have it here in the Syracuse area.

Of course we still have to hope for one more win to make this team bowl eligible, but I’m of the opinion that they should be able to win both of the next couple of games and easily make a nice bowl for the holidays. And if that doesn’t happen, I’ll take this win and be happy with it since I was at the game. Go Orange!