SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse University's Carrier Dome opened 40 years ago with an overflow crowd that set an attendance record that still stands.
Pete Sala remembers when the Dome was just an idea on paper. It was the late 1970s, he was in high school, and the university had decided to replace aging Archbold Stadium with an indoor facility on the same spot featuring an air-supported roof.
Sala's dad, John, was director of the university's physical plant, and brought home some of the drawings of the new building. “I remember conversations at the kitchen table, my dad saying Jim (Boeheim, the basketball coach) was going kicking and screaming," said Sala, now in charge of the Dome as vice president and chief campus facilities officer. “We had to.