YNN out of Syracuse is reporting that the Syracuse Crunch have made it official that they will be playing a game this upcoming season inside of the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. The game will be played on March 24, 2012. Their opponent? The Rochester Americans.
The Crunch are looking to break the all time AHL attendance record for the second time in three years. The first time was when they played the Binghamton Senators at the New York State Fairgrounds on February 10, 2010 attracting 21,503 fans. At the time the Senators were chosen as an opponent because the Amerks had also been thinking about an outdoor game but scrapped plans due to costs.
Update: The below paragraph was written prior to TheAHL schedule being released, it was down to either Binghamton or Rochester as an opponent.
Maybe this time around with no outdoor game in the works and the return of the Sabres maybe it’ll be in the leagues interest to choose the Amerks? Binghamton had a strong showing at the last game and are the defending Calder Cup champs, something that they have in their favor. Also, it’s still unknown how much of an impact the return of the Sabres will have, especially for road games.
/end update.
Not a bad idea for the Crunch and some continued publicity for The AHL. The Hartford Whale attempted an outdoor game this past season and on paper had a higher attendance of 21,673 but the actual numbers in seats was not anywhere near that, it was more like 10,000 people.
The Carrier Dome has 49,250 seats for football games, 34,616 for basketball games and 56,250 for concerts. How they setup the building is anyones guess but if they can host a sell out with the Dome setup like it is for basketball games they’ll have no problems breaking the record.
Would you travel for the game?
