The First Rule of Carrier Dome Renovations is Don't Talk About Carrier Dome Renovations

The Carrier Dome renovations are a major decision that affects Syracuse Athletics moving forward. Naturally, it's already turned into a sideshow.

Just like the un-retirement and re-retirement of 44, the Roosevelt Bowie jersey, and other fun fiascoes, the renovation has already has it's first snafu made worse by the reaction to it.

First, a contractor called Walters, Inc. posted a couple renderings of the impending $205 million Carrier Dome renovation, complete with a detailed look at what the new and improved roof and complex might look like.

Then, SU released a stern statement decrying the rendering and date information included, noting that no final decisions had been made. Of course those who work in development and architecture know that companies post in-work renderings all the time and it's understood that said renderings and dates are considered TBD until all of the pertinent parties actually sign off and build the damn thing.

Then, the Walter's entire website went down for the rest of the day, meaning someone from SU or on behalf of SU got super pissed off and reigned down the thunder.

TNIAAM reached out to Walters to find out what happened and here was their response:

So there you go. We'd say crisis averted but there really never was a crisis to begin with. The whole thing just became weird and noteworthy because of the reaction. It's a case of wanting to control the information, being unable to do so, and then overreacting to try to regain control.

It reminded me a bit of what it was like when DOC Gross ran the place and it concerns me that the modus operandi over there doesn't seem to have changed.

What really makes it a shame is the fact that the reaction to that leaked rendering was pretty universally-liked. I didn't see very many, if any, complaints. So to then immediately shut it down as incorrect or whatever ends up not sitting well. It's like trying to Jedi mind trick-away something that we were totally cool with.

Obviously we know you still have to run it up the flagpole on campus, then get approval from the city, and figure out all your funding options, and then start the building process. We know this isn't something that comes together in a couple months.

It'll be funny in a few weeks when official renderings are released and they're either exactly that one or something that's 95 percent like that one. We'll all wonder what the big deal was.