A New Stadium For 'Cuse? Well, They Sure Have Earned It

Oh the Arch, how we miss you so.
My friends and I have often wondered why Syracuse doesn't take advantage of the only real home-field advantages is has: the weather. Imagine being forced to travel up to Syracuse to play a late season game in a driving snow storm in 10 degree weather. The 'Cuse players get to crawl out of their own beds late after practicing in the muck all week while these guys from West Virginia or Southern Florida are running warm-up drills 3 hours before the game to get used to the scene. An outdoor stadium would be huge benefit to the program in terms of wins and losses (maybe less of an advantage in the recruiting wars). This all would have been much more feasible in the mid-nineties when Syracuse was a legitimate football team and people would have been willing to invest some money into the facilities. After a couple of less than stellar seasons, the dreams of a new stadium faded with the hopes of grabbing Mike Paulus and Mike Hart. Well, according to some Syracuse supersleuths, it seems that our prayers may be on the brink of being answered:

AUG. 2, 3:12 P.M. - A private development firm, name unknown, recently contacted Syracuse University with plans for a new football stadium, SU athletic director Daryl Gross confirmed to The Daily Orange in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon.

An anonymous source contacted The D.O. late Wednesday night with initial information.

"Recently a private developer approached the University and expressed interest in conducting a feasibility study related to an idea they had for a new privately-financed athletic stadium," Gross wrote in a statement to The D.O. "Private developers frequently approach the University with ideas and we indicated to this developer that they could conduct a feasibility study at their own cost.

"It is very premature to consider this a University project, as this is simply a concept that has been advanced by a developer. We expect that the developer will discuss the results of their feasibility study with us once it's been completed."

I'm not sure who this anonymous developer is but he's got to know something I don't about this Syracuse program because even if I had the money I'm not sure I'd want to hitch my wagon to this star. That being said, I love it. It's about time they came to their senses with this. Syracuse football should be about disgusting conditions, smashmouth style offense and relentless defense (like the greatest college football team of all-time the '59 Syracuse team). They shouldn't be about the West Coast Offense and finesse blocking assignments and coaches who double as cheerleaders. It's time to return some respect to this program and it starts with freezing some asses off.