For this year’s Orange Madness, fans will see changes in safety and seating in response to the stabbing at last year’s event.

Rather than general admission, the event will now have assigned seating, said John Sardino, Department of Public Safety associate chief. The event has been general admission since its re-launch in 2007, when it was held at Manley Field House instead of the Carrier Dome.

At last year’s Orange Madness, a man was stabbed in the upper-shoulder area, prompting officials to end the event 30 minutes early. The man sustained non-life threatening injuries and the incident did not involve anyone affiliated with the university.

Because of last year’s incident, DPS, Syracuse University Athletics and the Syracuse Police Department made the decision to use metal detection wands to screen people entering the Dome, Sardino said. There will also be heightened DPS and SPD security throughout the Dome in “all the spots usually covered,” he said.

All security and ticketing changes that have been made since the incident were made by DPS, SU Athletics and SPD, Sardino said. Sardino said DPS always meets with whoever the event holder is when they make security changes.

Tickets are now $5, as opposed to being free for past events, said Pete Sala, managing director of the Dome. Tickets are still free for SU student season-ticket holders, he said. Attendees will need to swipe their ID at Gate E as they do for football and basketball, after which they will find their seats in an assigned area, he said.

Sala, who is also senior associate director of athletics, said he feels assigned seating is an improvement for the event and doesn’t expect fans to be upset about the change.

“It stops the issue of getting up and not having your seat when you return,” he said.

Ben Glidden, president of Otto’s Army, said he thinks the assigned seating will not faze fans. Orange Madness allows fans to get a “first look” at the basketball team, which is a big deal for the community, he said. Most fans see the event as a privilege, he said.

“If they have to sit in an assigned seat to see them in their first practice, then so be it,” Glidden said.

Glidden said fans that come to the Dome for regular sporting events are also used to assigned seating so there shouldn’t be much opposition, he said. The assigned seating will make attendees more aware that it is a basketball event, so they should “treat it as such,” he said.

Since there won’t be as much moving around, Glidden said, the event should have improved security. He added that he doesn’t expect anything similar to last year to happen again this year.

As far as attendance, Glidden said he expects student turnout to remain the same. He said fans will likely be more upset about the fact that rapper Ace Hood was pulled from the event by SU Athletics.

“It’s an unfortunate thing that it happened, but we have really respectful fans who love our team who aren’t going to risk this event being taken away,” Glidden said. “We’ll move forward and have a great event.”

Published on October 17, 2013 at 1:41 am

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu