Carrier Dome Getting 360-Degree Ribbon Display, LED Video Boards, 'Crowd-Pleasing Graphics'

I'll never forget this one time during a Syracuse Orange basketball game in what must have been 1998 or 1999. SU had brought in these really fancy, really clear jumbo screens and placed one each at the top of the stands on both sides. They really changed the fan experience, giving you an instant opportunity to watch replays, read stats and otherwise enjoy the game.

I kid you not, at one point before the game, while explaining what these new screens were, the court announcer actually told fans "don't get used to it" as these were just temporary video boards. I swear on anything he actually used those words. And he was right, the boards went away soon after and Carrier Dome crowds went back to those old school digital boards that we've come to know and love expect.

Well it looks like the Carrier Dome is finally catching up with the rest of the stadiums in America. According to an official announcement today, the stadium is installing a 360-degree ribbon display and multiple LED video boards across the Dome in time for August.

DOC Gross...SHINE!

"This is something we have been working to acquire for some time. The new video and ribbon boards will add to the fan experience in the most spectacular way, enhancing live game viewing significantly beyond a family room experience. All of these video displays will dramatically change the atmosphere in the Dome, which is already one of the great venues in the country. Thanks to our partnership with Pepsi all of this new modernized technology and media is possible. The fact that we will have new scoreboards for our Olympic sports, as well, shows our continued commitment to be the best by providing resources that can help our coaches and their programs as they continue to have national success."

Thank you, Pepsi overlords. As an added bonus, the Ernie Davis Statue will now be holding a Pepsi bottle and a Pepsi logo will be added to Otto's hat.*

So what exactly are we talking about here?

• Several indoor LED video displays and a 360-degree ribbon display installed along the upper fascia of the Dome." This will add an "explosion of color to the game atmosphere," just hopefully not the color platinum.
  
• Large video displays at the end of each end zone, each flanked by smaller displays. That is a lot of displays. One of the things the displays will show is "crowd-pleasing graphics." I'm so sick of the Carrier Dome's crowd-infuriating graphics package they currently use. This is a good upgrade.
  
• Replace the current trivision displays with new 20 millimeter displays.
• Add six smaller displays at the concourse entryways and at the player entrances.
• A portable truck display to be positioned behind sections 123-124 for basketball games.
• SU Soccer Stadium, Coyne Field, SU Softball Stadium and Tennity Ice Pavilion all getting new scoreboards also.
• A whole crapton of Pepsi logos, assumedly.

I remember when I was in town for the Syracuse-UConn football game a few years ago and, after every play, most of the people in my row immediately reached for their smartphone to find out stats, reactions, replays. It'll be nice to know that the technology in the Carrier Dome is catching up with everyone else's. Or at least with 2004. Close enough.

*Not true but probably true.