Syracuse’s new athletic director isn’t wasting any time making noise.
Bryan Blair said Thursday that he wants the Orange to chase a Guinness Book of World Records mark in his first year on the job, with Syracuse aiming to break the record for the “loudest crowd roar at an indoor sporting event” inside the JMA Wireless Dome.
Blair laid out the target during the ACC Network’s annual training camp visit to Syracuse, saying he wants the dome to hit 130.5 decibels this season. That would edge past the current record of 130.4 decibels, which was set at the University of Kansas in 2017.
“We intend to break that this season,” Blair said on the ACC Network. “We’ve got our eyes set on smashing records and doing things that have never been done here before. We’re going to set the mark of what it should look like across the nation.”
Blair didn’t say when Syracuse might try for the record, and any official attempt would need representatives from Guinness World Records on hand to authenticate it.
The Orange have three home games this season against teams ranked in the AP Top 25 preseason poll: Louisville, SMU and Notre Dame.
If the effort stretches into basketball season, Syracuse would be doing it with a new men’s basketball coach in Gerry McNamara.
The current indoor crowd record was set on Feb. 13, 2017, just before tipoff of a men’s basketball game between Kansas and West Virginia. That game, part of an ESPN Big Monday broadcast, matched two Top 10 teams and drew an announced crowd of 16,300 at Allen Fieldhouse. The loudest reading during the game was 129.2 decibels, and Kansas won in overtime.
Before Kansas, the mark belonged to Kentucky at 126.4 decibels, set that same year in a game against Kansas. Earlier still, the loudest indoor crowd roar record had been held by the Sacramento Kings.
Guinness’ record for the loudest crowd roar in a sports stadium stands at 142.2 decibels, set by the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sept. 29, 2014. The roar came with eight seconds left in the first quarter of a 41-14 win over the New England Patriots.
“We’ll have the Guiness Book of World Records,” Blair told the ACC Network. “We’re chasing it. ... We’re going to be bold and ambitious in our goals.”
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