Want the ACC Lacrosse Tournament in Syracuse? Go to more games

Dome attendance, it’s not just a concern for Syracuse Football anymore.

While the SU football team deals with it’s own pressing attendance concerns, it seems as though the Syracuse Orange lacrosse team is also keeping an eye on who is in the stands these days. Unlike football, they’re looking at it in terms of how they can convince ACC officials that the Carrier Dome should host an upcoming ACC Lacrosse Tournament.

Syracuse.com’s Lindsay Kramer wrote a piece Tuesday discussing the notable question...why doesn’t the ACC put the tournament here? The 2015 tournament took place in Philadelphia. The 2016 tournament, played in Kennesaw, Georgia, was a bit of a cluster**** thanks to the weather. Meanwhile, the 2017 ACC Tournament will probably be played at Duke. So if we’re going back to campus sites, why not Syracuse?

John Desko is asking the same question.

"That's a good question. I think there's still some discussions yet whether it goes to Duke then it goes to the new ACC schools, Notre Dame and Syracuse, or it goes with the original rotation and then back to Syracuse.”

Desko then went on to note, in a somewhat subtle way, that home attendance for SU games appears to be a factor in terms of convincing the league that they will be able to pull in a big enough audience for a tourney.

"I think one of the things we're trying to do is generate some more attendance at the games, a little bit more excitement there. And I think that would be the benefit of going to a home site.''

Whether that’s a concern from the league or a concern from Desko himself is unclear. He also mentions that local facilities appear to be a concern as well in terms of hosting the event.

What’s weird about it is that Syracuse actually continues to lead the nation in home attendance. The 4,103 fans per game led the way over Ohio State (3,819) and Maryland (3,101). That said, that number is actually down 20 percent from 2015 when they averaged 4,802 per home game. For perspective, SU averaged 4,140 per game in 2014 and 3,859 per game in 2013.

So while overall attendance certainly isn’t the issue, perhaps SU and the ACC want to monitor 2017 attendance to see if this was an anomaly or if 2015’s bump was the anomaly. Depending on the answer, we might find out about an ACC Tournament in town sooner than later.