Orange Report: Off the Top of the Dome
9/3/2026 4:00:00 PM | General
Hello Orange Nation!
Welcome to the second edition of the Orange Report: Off the Top of the Dome. I hope this message finds you as fired up as I am heading into this weekend, where I get to experience my first home football game and everything that coincides with it.
By this weekend, all our fall sports teams will have started their seasons. Men's soccer is 3-1 after beating a ranked opponent on the road, and women's soccer is 3-1-2 with the fourth-best goals-against average in the ACC. No. 9 field hockey swept its opening two road games, and volleyball opened at Illinois this past weekend. Cross country opens Saturday at Colgate, with the men ranked No. 13 nationally and picked first in the ACC Preseason Poll after last year's NCAA podium finish.
The start of the year is always filled with excitement and I can't wait to experience our football opener this weekend as that gameday energy fills campus. If you haven't yet, get your tickets at Cuse.com/FootballTickets, and I hope to get the chance to meet many of you at 'Cuse on the Quad or as I make my way around to tailgates.
FIRST TWO MONTHS:
Just a few months into my official tenure at Syracuse, I find myself more excited about the potential and upside of Syracuse Athletics by the day. While many of the initiatives we want to target won't happen overnight and will require continued hard work from our team, I'm continually energized by the passion of our students, alumni and fans here at Syracuse.
I want to highlight just a few of the things our team has accomplished or initiated over the last two months:
Over the last two weeks, you've seen us announce the start of some of the enhancements we'll have for football season this year, both at 'Cuse on the Quad and in-game.
Our goal, from the moment you arrive on campus until you head home on a home football weekend, is that we make that experience special. We want to have something for everyone, and you'll see new things on the Quad from mechanical bulls and rock-climbing walls to expanded seating areas and large video screens to provide that.
These enhancements are just the beginning of those efforts. We remain committed to constantly improving the fan experience that delivers events that you simply cannot miss.
You'll see us continue to debut new things in the Dome this year. Two initiatives we're aggressively exploring are a 50/50 raffle and "round up" program. You've likely experienced one or both if you've attended recent professional sporting events. While both require multiple levels of internal and external approvals along with new technology, they provide fun and engaging way for our fans to provide support, while also having the chance to win yourself. Please know we hear you and are working hard as a University to make these happen.
Moving forward, fan feedback will be crucial to how we evaluate and advance our gameday experience. We'll have opportunities where we solicit your feedback on a variety of topics, which will allow us to tailor the experience to what our fans want. This season, we'll start that effort by partnering with FanFlow – a product created by Edison Friday, one of our own students in the David B. Falk College of Sport, which has already been utilized at both Crypto.com Arena and Dodger Stadium. We will pilot this at football and basketball games this fall.
These efforts to enhance our fan experience do not stop at football. The Dome is the most unique venue in college sports and we're going to lean into that and be transparent about our goals: we want to break the indoor sporting event decibel record and our single-game attendance record (post-renovation) in the Dome for all five of our sports that play in that venue. Fortune favors the bold, and we will continue to set bold, ambitious goals across all of Syracuse Athletics.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOME TO OUR ECOSYSTEM
Fan experience is a key priority for our department not only because of the competitive benefits that come with a full Dome, but because it's crucial to the financial ecosystem of our entire region.
In 2024, when our football team finished inside the top 20 nationally, I learned that there was an over $50 million increase in revenue for the tourism and hospitality industry of Central New York directly associated with that. In the current landscape of college athletics, where investment from businesses can directly support roster construction, it benefits all parties for our revenue-driving programs — football, basketball and lacrosse — to be successful. Investing in Syracuse Athletics is mutually beneficial and creates tangible returns for businesses. And that impact isn't limited to the Dome — our other 15 programs compete across the country and represent the Block S proudly everywhere they go.
Our sports are also central to the overall student experience at Syracuse University — football Saturdays, basketball nights and lacrosse in the spring, plus the 15 other programs our students follow and support. When our students are talking about memorable moments in their four years here, we need to make sure at least some of those memories are made inside the Dome. We need to be part of the conversations for prospective students when they discuss why Syracuse is the right fit for what they want in a college experience.
STRATEGIC PLAN
One of the things you'll start to see me regularly talk about in these updates is our strategic plan. We're building a framework through 2030 that identifies our key priorities and the initiatives behind them.
That work starts with listening. We'll hold focus group conversations with fans, donors and the business community, and we'll engage our student-athletes, coaches, athletics staff, faculty and University leadership throughout.
Alongside that listening, we're engaging an outside consultant group with expertise in business, college and professional sports to conduct an objective assessment that will help us establish our baseline, map out our potential in key categories and provide a framework on how we can reach our collective ambitions. This work will run alongside facility and commercialization roadmaps, and together they'll inform the final plan.
While this may sound like a lot of bureaucratic, behind the scenes work, these steps are necessary to align our stakeholders and our efforts so we can be the best version of ourselves over the next three to five years.
SWOT ANALYSIS
We've also assessed where we stand today through a SWOT analysis. Our strengths won't surprise any Syracuse fan: an iconic national brand and a passionate fanbase. University leadership is aligned behind bold transformation and behind the value athletics brings to the University's mission. Our competitive advantages are distinct: elite academic schools, a deep alumni network, proximity to New York City, a one-of-a-kind competition venue in the Dome and status as the Northeast's flagship Power Four program.
Our weaknesses are largely structural: we aren't yet organized to capitalize on those strengths, and we haven't scaled to resource our programs at the level today's Power Four environment demands.
We've begun to address that — some steps you'll see publicly soon — starting with the addition of a Chief Commercialization Officer to drive revenue against those strengths. Our opportunity is to modernize the enterprise by unifying revenue, fan experience and content. Our academic strength in sport, content, entrepreneurship, AI and commercial innovation gives us a path to build the nation's most innovative athletics enterprise. Done well, it positions athletics as a catalyst for enrollment, alumni engagement and regional economic impact.
The threat is simple: the marketplace will not wait for us. We cannot let the investment and revenue gap with our peer institutions widen. Many expect the college athletics landscape to change significantly in the coming years — most acutely between 2029 and 2034. The time to act is now.
NAME-IMAGE-LIKENESS
To put it simply, in order to be competitive in roster building, we need to maintain a strong third-party NIL program – and the number needed to be competitive continues to grow, exponentially.
The Athletic recently had a story about men's basketball NIL spending and Opendorse released NIL reporting from the previous year. What's clear from this data is that the competitive marketplace is quickly evolving. Although the House Settlement establishes an institutional revenue-sharing cap, of which Syracuse spends the maximum, third-party NIL is driving a significant share of athlete compensation.
Based on The Athletic's reporting, $10 million (between revenue share and third-party NIL) has now become the unofficial floor for an NCAA Tournament team, with some programs reportedly spending as much as three times that.
We have work ahead of us to ensure our resources continue to match our expectations of success. I remain confident that, by working together to modernize Syracuse Athletics' commercial model, fundraising strategy and NIL ecosystem, we can be successful.
The transition to One Orange Alliance has already shown positive results in this area, thanks to Colby Clark's leadership and investment. However, significant opportunity remains that directly impacts our roster construction. You will see us continue to commercialize our efforts and seek NIL opportunities for our student-athletes.
I want to close with a word of gratitude for our staff. In a short amount of time, they've put in tremendous work – with plenty more still ahead. I'm grateful every day for the faculty and staff I get to work alongside at Syracuse. Through this transition, our new team members and I have been welcomed with open arms, and the positive momentum is already building thanks to the efforts they put in on a daily basis.
I'm fired up for what the future holds for Syracuse Athletics, and our team can't wait to be in the Dome with Orange Nation on Saturday!
Go Orange!
Bryan
Welcome to the second edition of the Orange Report: Off the Top of the Dome. I hope this message finds you as fired up as I am heading into this weekend, where I get to experience my first home football game and everything that coincides with it.
By this weekend, all our fall sports teams will have started their seasons. Men's soccer is 3-1 after beating a ranked opponent on the road, and women's soccer is 3-1-2 with the fourth-best goals-against average in the ACC. No. 9 field hockey swept its opening two road games, and volleyball opened at Illinois this past weekend. Cross country opens Saturday at Colgate, with the men ranked No. 13 nationally and picked first in the ACC Preseason Poll after last year's NCAA podium finish.
The start of the year is always filled with excitement and I can't wait to experience our football opener this weekend as that gameday energy fills campus. If you haven't yet, get your tickets at Cuse.com/FootballTickets, and I hope to get the chance to meet many of you at 'Cuse on the Quad or as I make my way around to tailgates.
FIRST TWO MONTHS:
Just a few months into my official tenure at Syracuse, I find myself more excited about the potential and upside of Syracuse Athletics by the day. While many of the initiatives we want to target won't happen overnight and will require continued hard work from our team, I'm continually energized by the passion of our students, alumni and fans here at Syracuse.
I want to highlight just a few of the things our team has accomplished or initiated over the last two months:
- We recently announced a sponsorship agreement with Progressive Insurance, which places its logo on the sidelines in the Dome. Having such a national-level partnership speaks to the momentum and visibility that we have in the college athletics landscape and is an example of how we're aggressively and strategically pursuing necessary new revenue opportunities to fuel our future success.
- In July, Vinny Lobdell and One Orange Alliance put on an incredible event for Summer Slam. The energy in the room was amazing as we kicked off a new era in the storied history of our men's basketball program under the direction of Gerry McNamara.
Summer Slam 2026 🔥🎬
— Syracuse Men's Basketball (@Cuse_MBB) July 24, 2026
Thank you everyone that attended, our sponsors and most of all our hosts the Lobdell family! 🍊📈
Congrats to dunk contest winner Sadiq White and 3-point contest winner Mark Morano! pic.twitter.com/oGlUSYZTN7
- Last month, we hired Brian Idalski to lead our ice hockey program. He brings 25 years of coaching experience at the NCAA Division I, PWHL and Olympic levels, with over 400 career victories.
- We've also launched some new initiatives exclusively to target two audiences that are the cornerstones of creating our gameday atmosphere in the Dome.
- First, our students: While we're hoping to provide an enhanced gameday experience for our students all game, the third quarter of each football game is designed explicitly for the students. There will be discounted concession items, in-game activations designed for students, an opportunity to "Be the DJ" and select the music in the Dome, as well as a few "messy" surprises.
- For our Season Ticket Members, we've created some new exclusive opportunities including a meet-and-greet with our football team in August, an exclusive merchandise store, discounts with some of our business partners in the community and more.
Over the last two weeks, you've seen us announce the start of some of the enhancements we'll have for football season this year, both at 'Cuse on the Quad and in-game.
Our goal, from the moment you arrive on campus until you head home on a home football weekend, is that we make that experience special. We want to have something for everyone, and you'll see new things on the Quad from mechanical bulls and rock-climbing walls to expanded seating areas and large video screens to provide that.
These enhancements are just the beginning of those efforts. We remain committed to constantly improving the fan experience that delivers events that you simply cannot miss.
You'll see us continue to debut new things in the Dome this year. Two initiatives we're aggressively exploring are a 50/50 raffle and "round up" program. You've likely experienced one or both if you've attended recent professional sporting events. While both require multiple levels of internal and external approvals along with new technology, they provide fun and engaging way for our fans to provide support, while also having the chance to win yourself. Please know we hear you and are working hard as a University to make these happen.
Moving forward, fan feedback will be crucial to how we evaluate and advance our gameday experience. We'll have opportunities where we solicit your feedback on a variety of topics, which will allow us to tailor the experience to what our fans want. This season, we'll start that effort by partnering with FanFlow – a product created by Edison Friday, one of our own students in the David B. Falk College of Sport, which has already been utilized at both Crypto.com Arena and Dodger Stadium. We will pilot this at football and basketball games this fall.
These efforts to enhance our fan experience do not stop at football. The Dome is the most unique venue in college sports and we're going to lean into that and be transparent about our goals: we want to break the indoor sporting event decibel record and our single-game attendance record (post-renovation) in the Dome for all five of our sports that play in that venue. Fortune favors the bold, and we will continue to set bold, ambitious goals across all of Syracuse Athletics.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOME TO OUR ECOSYSTEM
Fan experience is a key priority for our department not only because of the competitive benefits that come with a full Dome, but because it's crucial to the financial ecosystem of our entire region.
In 2024, when our football team finished inside the top 20 nationally, I learned that there was an over $50 million increase in revenue for the tourism and hospitality industry of Central New York directly associated with that. In the current landscape of college athletics, where investment from businesses can directly support roster construction, it benefits all parties for our revenue-driving programs — football, basketball and lacrosse — to be successful. Investing in Syracuse Athletics is mutually beneficial and creates tangible returns for businesses. And that impact isn't limited to the Dome — our other 15 programs compete across the country and represent the Block S proudly everywhere they go.
Our sports are also central to the overall student experience at Syracuse University — football Saturdays, basketball nights and lacrosse in the spring, plus the 15 other programs our students follow and support. When our students are talking about memorable moments in their four years here, we need to make sure at least some of those memories are made inside the Dome. We need to be part of the conversations for prospective students when they discuss why Syracuse is the right fit for what they want in a college experience.
STRATEGIC PLAN
One of the things you'll start to see me regularly talk about in these updates is our strategic plan. We're building a framework through 2030 that identifies our key priorities and the initiatives behind them.
That work starts with listening. We'll hold focus group conversations with fans, donors and the business community, and we'll engage our student-athletes, coaches, athletics staff, faculty and University leadership throughout.
Alongside that listening, we're engaging an outside consultant group with expertise in business, college and professional sports to conduct an objective assessment that will help us establish our baseline, map out our potential in key categories and provide a framework on how we can reach our collective ambitions. This work will run alongside facility and commercialization roadmaps, and together they'll inform the final plan.
While this may sound like a lot of bureaucratic, behind the scenes work, these steps are necessary to align our stakeholders and our efforts so we can be the best version of ourselves over the next three to five years.
SWOT ANALYSIS
We've also assessed where we stand today through a SWOT analysis. Our strengths won't surprise any Syracuse fan: an iconic national brand and a passionate fanbase. University leadership is aligned behind bold transformation and behind the value athletics brings to the University's mission. Our competitive advantages are distinct: elite academic schools, a deep alumni network, proximity to New York City, a one-of-a-kind competition venue in the Dome and status as the Northeast's flagship Power Four program.
Our weaknesses are largely structural: we aren't yet organized to capitalize on those strengths, and we haven't scaled to resource our programs at the level today's Power Four environment demands.
We've begun to address that — some steps you'll see publicly soon — starting with the addition of a Chief Commercialization Officer to drive revenue against those strengths. Our opportunity is to modernize the enterprise by unifying revenue, fan experience and content. Our academic strength in sport, content, entrepreneurship, AI and commercial innovation gives us a path to build the nation's most innovative athletics enterprise. Done well, it positions athletics as a catalyst for enrollment, alumni engagement and regional economic impact.
The threat is simple: the marketplace will not wait for us. We cannot let the investment and revenue gap with our peer institutions widen. Many expect the college athletics landscape to change significantly in the coming years — most acutely between 2029 and 2034. The time to act is now.
NAME-IMAGE-LIKENESS
To put it simply, in order to be competitive in roster building, we need to maintain a strong third-party NIL program – and the number needed to be competitive continues to grow, exponentially.
The Athletic recently had a story about men's basketball NIL spending and Opendorse released NIL reporting from the previous year. What's clear from this data is that the competitive marketplace is quickly evolving. Although the House Settlement establishes an institutional revenue-sharing cap, of which Syracuse spends the maximum, third-party NIL is driving a significant share of athlete compensation.
Based on The Athletic's reporting, $10 million (between revenue share and third-party NIL) has now become the unofficial floor for an NCAA Tournament team, with some programs reportedly spending as much as three times that.
We have work ahead of us to ensure our resources continue to match our expectations of success. I remain confident that, by working together to modernize Syracuse Athletics' commercial model, fundraising strategy and NIL ecosystem, we can be successful.
The transition to One Orange Alliance has already shown positive results in this area, thanks to Colby Clark's leadership and investment. However, significant opportunity remains that directly impacts our roster construction. You will see us continue to commercialize our efforts and seek NIL opportunities for our student-athletes.
I want to close with a word of gratitude for our staff. In a short amount of time, they've put in tremendous work – with plenty more still ahead. I'm grateful every day for the faculty and staff I get to work alongside at Syracuse. Through this transition, our new team members and I have been welcomed with open arms, and the positive momentum is already building thanks to the efforts they put in on a daily basis.
I'm fired up for what the future holds for Syracuse Athletics, and our team can't wait to be in the Dome with Orange Nation on Saturday!
Go Orange!
Bryan
Friday, September 04
Friday, September 04
Thursday, September 03
Thursday, September 03
