How to increase revenue is the predicament the Syracuse athletic department is faced with every year. The football program is the most profitable at SU, but its recent mediocrity hasn’t helped matters.

To solve that problem, SU will decrease football season ticket prices for the upcoming year.

In addition to retaining SU football head coach Paul Pasqualoni, Chancellor Nancy Cantor announced Monday night that the average season ticket price will decrease $4 per game for the 2005 season, despite spending lavishly on a new football training facility that begins construction in 2005. The announcement ends a streak of football ticket price increases each of the past four years.

Attendance at the Carrier Dome has decreased the past two seasons while the team has declined on the field, going 16-19 over the past three seasons.

‘In visiting with individuals and groups throughout the greater Syracuse area,’ Cantor said. ‘I’ve frequently heard people talk about the price of football tickets as one reason why they choose to watch games on television. I’ve heard these concerns, and today we’re responding. We want to reward our loyal fans.’

A season ticket for all six home games next year will be $168, an average of $28 per game. In comparison, the season ticket package this year was $160 for five games, $32 per game.

Cantor also said individual game ticket prices will remain the same.

‘We always need to keep the fan in mind,’ she said. ‘We need to take into account not only our ticket prices, but also how we can engage many parts of the community and give them an opportunity and a reason to come to the Dome.’

Coupled with the announcement to retain Pasqualoni, the ticket price announcement comes at a peculiar time. Last season, a ticket price increase was announced in April, four months after the season ended. In 2003, a ticket price increase was announced in early March.

‘We wanted to send a message to the community that we hear, we listen and we respond,’ Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel said. ‘Chancellor Cantor is very committed to a more open involvement with the community, and I commend her for that.’

In late November, the athletic department announced its plans to build a $3 million football strength and conditioning facility. The 11,200 square-foot facility will be added to the current Iocolano-Petty Football Complex at Manley Field House.

The lower level of the complex will be dedicated to free weights and weight machines, and the upper-level balcony will be used for aerobic equipment. The athletic department is working on a fund-raising campaign for a naming donor.

‘We’ve received an enthusiastic response,’ Cantor said, ‘especially from Donovan McNabb and our other successful NFL alumni who know the importance of weight training and of a stellar training facility to a successful football program.’

‘Don has been very supportive of the program and he continues to support the program,’ Crouthamel said. ‘He’s committed. He’s gonna help us.’

SU running backs coach David Walker said the money for the new training facilities will be well spent. The Orange needs good facilities to keep up with other Big East programs.

‘The first thing you see when you get on campus is the facilities,’ Walker said. ‘You show a kid a Corvette and a Pinto, they’re gonna make a decision from that. There’s a difference there.’

Published on December 6, 2004 at 12:00 pm