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The Carrier Dome should be sold out this weekend.
Not saying it will be. Chances are it won't. It will get close, closer than it's been in years. But I'm not talking about what will happen, I'm talking about what should happen.
If you're a Syracuse fan who has bemoaned the lack of quality opponents, you've got the No. 3 team in the nation in the Dome for the first time ever.
If you're a Syracuse fan who has bemoaned the lack of wins, Syracuse is on a two-game winning streak and six-game Dome winning streak.
If you're a football fan who has bemoaned the lack of interesting football in the Dome, you've got a Heisman frontrunner on one side and a quarterback who, so far, has been nothing short of sensational on the other.
If you're a national parks enthusiast, well, they're all closed this weekend. So, tough noogies.
So, we'll find out just where we stand as a fanbase after this weekend.
In the meantime, the question we're all wondering is...how's it going? Obviously, no official word yet. SU official fall all over themselves to promote attendance figures when they're really good (every basketball sellout), so clearly we've still got some work to do.
Coach Shafer doesn't seem too worried about it:
"A lot of people have come up to me on the street and said, 'Coach, don't worry. We'll be there. You know we'll be there,' " Shafer said Tuesday afternoon on his weekly teleconference.
"It just excites the hell out of me and the kids, and there's no doubt in my mind that our fans will show up and be the 12th man we hope they can be."
(Please don't let Texas A&M see the 12th Man stuff. Please don't let Texas A&M see the 12th Man stuff...)
Meanwhile, SU just opened up some lower bowl seats that were previously unavailable:
Syracuse University has announced that a limited number of seats in the lower bowl have been released for the Clemson game on Saturday, October 5. The tickets will go on sale Thursday, October 3, at 9:00 a.m. and can be purchased online at suathletics.com, in person at the Carrier Dome Box Office, or by calling 1-800-DOME-TIX.
Anyone want to take a guess at announced attendance this Saturday? Personally, I'll go with 44K (49K capacity) until someone tells me it looks like otherwise.