I had 12 extras in my hand at kick off. At least the reason was obvious then.
Must be the coaching.
Bringing North Carolina friend/graduate and my son who is a high school senior. My son is applying to ND and will be touring the campus. Have tickets been readily available on campus?
If you don't want to deal with the hassle of text messaging ticket screenshots or whatever, your best bet is probably StubHub.
I think the lack of enthusiasm today is due to a few factors. Some have always been there, but most are directly related to Swarbrick/Kelly's reign:
1) ACC opponents are seldom compelling. Yet we play 2-3 of these teams each year. Clemson was compelling last year. Florida State and Miami are sometimes, though not recently. None of the other ACC teams are fun in any way. Score this as 100% on Swarbrick.
2) MAC tomato cans are not interesting in the least. Nor can you expect Cincinnati, Connecticut, Tulsa, UNLV, or South Florida to be interesting. Yet we schedule 1-2 teams like this every year. Spare me the lauding of Cincinnati, it was blind luck that they happened to be competitive the year we hosted them. Again, 100% on Swarbrick.
3) Price gouging. Again, 100% on Swarbrick.
4) The perception that this won't be a championship team. The only people that don't perceive this are the deluded. 100% of this is on Swarbrick/Kelly. While I'm not sure how to apportion, it doesn't really matter.
5) The fact that ND is a national school, unique to all football powers. Most alumni would need to fly or drive over eight hours to attend a game. That has been the case for virtually forever, so it's not a new factor.
6) COVID fears; the one new factor that Swarbrick doesn't control.
Prior to the online system, folks would apply for more than they wanted to help ensure they'd get something. When you go online now, you pick and get exactly what you want and don't run the risk of having extras that you might feel compelled to use, sell ot give away. Those tickets aren't purchased. We now end up buying fewer tickets than we did in the past.
After a couple rounds of the online routine, I am seriously considering just buying on the after market for less $ and taking some risk that there might be a game a season where it might be harder or more expensive to buy tickets that way than through the online system. That won't happen this year and will rarely be the case with the way the schedules will be looking forward.
The premium I pay now to choose my seats and know I have them is getting to be more than it's worth.
We had that discussion a few eeks ago. One reason he gave for the added expense of the season ticket package was being able to keep his prime Joyce parking pass for tailgating.
That was about the only value add he came up with. One other was knowing he had the same seats evey week.
We have the wall directly in front of us so we have leg room and we can look directly up the ND has all the way to the tunnel. For example you can see FHSUIrish and myself in the famous "Bush Push" picture and in the re-done stadium there are no field seats in front of us.
If it weren't for that location, we would have given them up about the same time that Kelly was blaming players and not BVG. We kept them despite Ty and Charlie and Tulsa Kelly because we had hope. Now we keep them for the game or two to have "good" seats. I've sat in a lot of other locations in the stadium over the last 25 years and the only seats that liked more was when I was a student near the front of the Senior Section and last year when I sat at the 50 for the Clemson game. I suppose sitting up in the new boxes was a great seat but for whatever reason it really didn't "feel" like an ND football game up there.
I mean there isn't a truly terrible seat in the stadium (unless you are next to the USC band), but there is certainly seats that have more "value".
I think now paying for two season tickets for a single game is more expensive than season tickets as a student back when we a had a real Championship coach on the sideline (Lou 1996).
It really is foolish to purchase any ticket in the upper bowl for face value at this point and probably half of the lower bowl is not worth face.
My guess is that a big portion of this is to maximize the amount of money, not people coming in. I'm betting the price point is such that a certain % of unsold tickets are made up for by the price per ticket more than it would take to actually sell out each game. In other words the price point isn't set to maximize ND fans in the stands, it's meant to maximize the profit from whomever buys the ticket.
Part of me wonders if ND didn't overplay the thought that there would be some sort of pent up demand after last year and priced accordingly. I mean lets say there were 10k unsold seats for Toledo. Assuming they were all the lowest tier tickets ($60 each I think), that was $600k left on the table. Keeping that lowest tier assumption the other 67k tickets made roughly $4.1 Million. I'm not sure what the price point would be for a sellout for Toledo $50? $40? $30? Just a $10 reduction I prices would require a full sellout to make up the difference for 10K unsold tickets.
Expand that formula to USC. I'm sure ND would rather not have 5-10K unsold tickets for USC and the price point does change the formula. I'm sure there is someone out there who is better at the math that could give you a pretty graph that would tell you where the sweet spot is for every ND game in terms of price point to unsold tickets and I'm sure that one could tell if ND made that mark every game this year or not. My guess is that someone is getting paid by ND to figure this out and if ND hits that mark every game this year you can bet that even the garbage games will see a price increase next year as well.
serving alums' and fans' best interests.
In addition to the algorithm-driven pricing models you mention - models that prioritize dollar-maximization at the expense of serving ND's broader fan/alum base and filling the stadium. Just like the Cubs and every other for-profit corporate sports entity are doing.
Talked to a local restaurant owner that says it basically loses that night on dinner tabs.
And if so, wouldn’t this be serving the ND fan (or the future ND fan) at least a bit?
Personally, I’d like to see maybe just one home night game a year and not two. But I’d rather have two than zero.
I know night games the elder fan grumpy, but we probably need less of them in the stadium and more younger fans there anyway!
Part of the reason night games get better ratings is because networks save the best game for the primetime slots.
Looking at 2021 data, however, it's pretty clear that viewers will tune in to quality games regardless of time slot.
This year, 13 games have achieved a rating of 3.0 or higher:
- 4 at 12:00 pm (31%)
- 4 at 2:30/3:30 pm (31%)
- 5 at 7:00 pm or later (38%)
Big games pull big numbers, period.
Here's the thing about night games and attendance in general:
Where are all the 25-year old alums/fans? I used to attend 4-5 home games a year in my early 20s, and am down to now 1 per year.
That's the circle of life, same as it ever was. ND alums age out, attend fewer games, but there's the next crop of young fans/alums to fill their seats.
It seems like ND has a younger-fan issue, even after modernizing the stadium to fit the younger fan's needs.
Where are those 20-somethings?
memorable home games in the past 20 years I'd say a lot less of the 20-somethings have caught the bug compared to prior generations, understandably so. Also when your goal in scheduling is to back door your way into an undefeated regular season/playoff birth don't be surprized after you get a loss if people lose interest in the rest of your crap schedule.
...and your 20-something alums saw mediocre football during their tenures.
They don't make time for it like the "geezers" do/did.
Sonic bombardment of the Jumbotron, the relegation of the and, the night games, the plastic surface, the crapola ossense, the list goes on.
It is a steaming pile.
that there were some tickets available for the game and the bus trip.
I get more interest in the hockey trips to Madison
no way I'm going to spend 5+ hours sitting next to a bunch of unvaccinated job johnny's with no mask requirements. Between no Covid requirements, ridiculously high ticket and parking prices, and no paper tickets; it's a wonder if we'll ever sellout another game without 15,000+ opposing team's fans in the stands.
requirement, well I think you're wrong.
Chicago that are not going to any games this year because of no COVID restrictions. What's totally inconsistent and hypocritical is that ND requires masks to attend every indoor and outdoor sporting event except football.
Ok, boomer
I use them at Yankee Stadium frequently and when there are that many people the wireless signal slows drastically. I now download them to my apple wallet but it's still a pain in the ass.
I'd rather just have my paper ticket.
I rather live in a world where I don't have to carry a "smartphone" around for every damn thing. It just another annoyance and reason not to attend.
creases. Tickets torn in half ..."
Some folks, myself not included, see that ticket stub as more than an entry to the venue.
I saved almost all of the ticket stub I had from all the sporting events I went to over the years. But I understand that all sports are moving forward with newer technology, and it does make sense.
You should add all your digital tickets to your Apple Wallet. That way you have them all in one place, and can still have some sort of collection. I do that, and it's at least something fun to have.
Here you “miss paper tickets”. Above you make fun of someone for the same thought. Anything for a laugh, right? To show you’re cool?
You’re the worst kind of poster.
And I'm making fun of people who are bitching at Notre Dame for moving to electronic tickets, as if it's their fault. That is what every single sporting venue in America is doing. And you know what? As nostalgic as you and I am are about the old paper tickets, it completely makes sense to go the electronic route.
And the worst kind of posters are the ones who bitch and moan and blame everything on Kelly or Jack. If it rains during the USC game, you'll probably blame it on Notre Dame leadership!
It's not like electronic tickets were forced on Notre Dame.
Rather than anything for a laugh, anything to get a rise out of people. Then he backtracks to avoid the inevitable launching.
Trolls generally aren't welcome here.
See DBCooper's post above (linked for your convenience).
Know why you're getting blowback and he isn't? Because you're a one-note fucknut who chooses to self-righteously harp on what you see as "bad-fan negativity". DB participates on multiple boards on multiple topics and is willing and able to acknowledge the opinions that differ from his without jerking himself off like you can't stop doing.
Bottom line, you're a douche and he isn't.
at least that's what the Dylan song says.
I also used to buy 2 programs every week,but after a bunch of them got destroyed in a basement flood I don't buy any now.
But that’s now a relic of the past. Every sporting venue either uses electronic tickets or is moving to that very soon. Progress and technology not something to blame Notre Dame for
You know, the ones who actually saw championship-level football as opposed to what we see now?
ticket thing successfully. Completely trusting that system has not yet arrived, however.
I'm going to attend because he's a good friend, our mutual friends will throw an awesome tailgate, and I'm inclined to go to the game because I think ND will win and I won't have to pay any actual cash to attend.
This doesn't make me any better or worse a fan than friends of mine I know who didn't put in for tickets because they're sick of the noise from the Tron and think driving back to Chicago at 1am is bullshit. Their position is 100 percent valid, and up until three hours ago, I was one of them.
People willing to call other ND fans "bad fans" because they think the bullshit that Kelly and Swarbrick are wreaking on what used to be an outstanding product can go fuck themselves sideways.
My fiancee's family has thrown a tailgate for every home game since '81, and all her siblings will be in town, so I'm going up with her to be with family. (You're more than welcome to stop by the Orange Van in the stadium lot.) She knows my feelings and that I'm not spending money that goes to ND. She pays her dad for the tickets. She knows I'm going to be with her and her family. I even cheered a little bit at the Toledo game to get the kids involved in between snide comments about the new student media segments.
It was not an outstanding product when Kelly and Swarbrick got there. In fact, the state of the program in 2008-2009 pretty much sucked. We were in the middle of a 16-21 three-year run.
But that doesn't change the gist of your last paragraph.
It is true that "the product" used to be great, as El Kabong said. It is also true that Kelly and Swarbrick are wreaking havoc on it.
He doesn't say that the product was great when Swarbrick took over.
That said, the PRODUCT is not simply wins and losses. The product is the ND home game experience. The stadium has been further bastardized into something not unique to Notre Dame, catering to fat cats and corporate tents. The field is no longer grass. There's a jumbotron, and despite Swarbrick and Jenkins scowling at skeptics who thought the TRON would become loud and tasteless, the skeptics were proved correct.
The product is also more and more expensive. I could go on.
A Notre Dame game in 2009 was a different and better experience in many ways than a game in 2021.
I think the fact that I said it was a nit, and the last line of the body of my post covered that.
But the truth is that the football itself, on average, is a bit better than when they took over.
15 minute Timeout!
And I cannot agree more with your last 2 paragraphs.
I hope you and your friend have a great Saturday
Hope you are well.
fans were to pull (their dollars) away, maybe that will force the admin to respond and make the necessary change. Alas, too many sycophants that think the "10-0* uNDefeated" 2020 banner hanging in the Gug was a well-deserved homage to a great accomplishment.
If ND were #1, this would be a sellout with tickets impossible to purchase at a reasonable price. Even with a tomato can USC in town.
I was a student during the Faust years, and there was little hope of a winning record, much less a major bowl or championship. Yet, the excitement over the USC rivalry was huge, despite ND being essentially non-competitive on a national scale.
As Andy said, there are many factors in play.
On pace for a 5th straight 10 win and top 15 ranked season. Playoff appearances in 2 of the last 4 seasons. They’ll probably drop, but the #2 2022 recruiting class so far, and a great start to 2023 (#3 so far).
Yes, Kelly hasn’t delivered a championship. But if he leaves tomorrow, he’s left ND in a far better position than he inherited.
Look, if we fall apart the rest of the year and lose 2 or 3 more regular season games, then maybe I’ll agree with you. But as of now, you can’t say we aren’t moving in the right direction.
and faded back to our comfortable 10ish place when the elite players commit. I’m not going to excited about a top five class until it’s signed.
10-win seasons against the kind of 12-game schedules Kelly has faced aren't the metric you think they are. "Top-15 ranked season" isn't either when teams outside the top 10 have two to three losses.
Playoff appearances where ND gets their doors blown off don't give me the warm fuzzies either.
than it says about Kelly.
Remember Georgia a couple years back, half the stadium black and red. ND fans sell out for money. I think they need to stop selling season tickets and let the real fans go, not a bunch of cheese and wine crybabies. Once again, does the coach has hi steam in position to win games, Kelly does. He isnt the one that fumbles or throw interceptions or miss tackles. Even with all those happening, ND still wins and his teams never quit. GO IRISH !
2 playoff shirts which only a few teams have e done
You'll accept ND getting humiliated on national television so you can say you have a t-shirt. OK.
Similarly to us. It was no better accomplishment than what many teams could have been selected for.
I have lived in SB my entire life, and graduated from ND in '94. I used to look forward to every season and would secure tickets to as many games as possible. That ended for me about 5 years ago. I dont attend anymore unless it has the potential to be a historic type game. I hate to tell my kids why I dont go anymore when they ask about going. I tell them it really isn't enjoyable for the cost. I dont even go with free tickets. And I am about as rabid of a fan as there is until about 5 years ago. The "real fans" were abandoned for the cash. If you dont get that, you haven't been paying attention.
There was a time when I day-tripped from Chicago for every game. I'd drive to South Bend, stop for a bowl of goulash at Albert's, cruise over to campus, and watch a football game that was presented to fans like no other place. Games were about the football first, last, and only.
Now I live 20 minutes of drive time to campus. Nothing prevents me from going to every game, but I don't go. I've seen games in dozens of college stadiums, and ND's experience is no different than any of them. Crappy music. Insipid videos. Noise Noise Noise!. Band and students contributions to the atmosphere diminished. It might as well be Ross–Ade Stadium or Ryan Field in terms of the game experience.
At most, I'll go to campus to visit friends' tailgates when they come to town; but I have no interest in attending the game. I can visit and easily be home for kickoff.
He's the one who is supposed to prepare his players so that they don't fumble or throw interceptions or miss tackles. Or he's supposed to recruit the guys who don't fumble or throw interceptions or miss tackles.
"Cheese and wine crybabies". That might be one of the most ironic things ever posted here.
They just keep ruining Brian Kelly's genius game plan!!!!
I am a world class heckler. I am not a prole.
No, its a bunch of ND so-called fans who are not really fans. Look around the country and see almost every stadium, especially in the south, sold out and its all their home team colors and many of them has never had many winning seasons. ND has too many over 60 season ticket holders who don't even want you to stand a cheer for the Irish, they shout "sit down son, I cant see the game". Like Holtz said before, at ND you can go 11-1 and they would ask why didnt you win them all. You can go 12-0 and they would say, you didn't win big enough. Boy, was he right. I do not agree with everything Coach Kelly does but he does win. I have never coached a college football team like all of you, but somehow you think you know more than Brian Kelly, who has won everywhere he has coached.
He's been ridiculed for doing 12-1 while getting his shit kicked in.
What, pray tell, has he won? Extolling his winning record against a watered down schedule is like saying I can do a 360 dunk when I lower the rim to 8 feet.
A crappy and commercialized product built to win games against bad teams and then talk about how great we are at knowing how to win. And we are supposed to believe this. It is all manufactured smoke and mirrors.
Ole Miss wasn’t a sellout last week, and Saban has been complaining about lackluster student section attendance since before the pandemic. And that’s with a top tier team.
Attendance to CFB is down in general, as the home viewing experience provides better bang for the buck.
Saban mentioned the student section when his juggernaut of a team played the bottom-feeders of Louisiana-Lafayette and New Mexico State.
Teams also played in recent years includ Arkansas State, Western Kentucky, Mercer, and the Citadel. I think those are all FBS schools, with the exception of LL, though I could be wrong.
If it’s hot and humid those aren’t exactly thrilling to stand and watch a non-contest.
UT-Ole Miss was a very crazy crowd and was louder and more raucous than most sold-out stadia, including during TV timeouts.
Our place was pretty rocking for Clemson last year.
Lots of people here blame Kelly, or Jack, or ND in general for lower ticket demands. But if you really look around, this is an issue almost everywhere. First off, USC isn’t good or exciting this year. They’ll probably finish up around .500. So I wouldn’t expect people to want to pay premium prices for it. But if you look all over, ticket demand is lower, and secondary market prices this close to Gameday are almost always below face value unless it’s really a marquee game. Michigan is ranked #6, and there are tickets still available for Saturdays game (with prices on stubhub less than half of face value). Bama’s game against Tennessee is sold out, but you can get them on stubhub for under face. Tickets to tonight’s Dodgers NLCS can be had for under face value!
Anyway, tickets being available for cheap on the secondary market doesn’t really say anything about that program.
I used to go to one or two or even three games each year. It's a long trek from the DC area for that but it seemed to be worth it to see a place that was such a big part of my youth.
Things have changed. Some of them are me getting older and having to accept some limits on what the body will do without grievous resistance. Some of them are sort of peripheral ... the closing of a B&B in Angola that made things pretty convenient for us.
But other things have been the University's choice. It is a different place than it was back in '68. Campus has been vastly changed. I get that the old Aero building, half Quonset hut, had to go, but even the road that ran in front of the Aero department is gone. Don't ask me about the stadium.
And the University's attitude has changed. It is now an international research institution with huge money. The student body is made up of class presidents and the "most likely to succeed" crowd. I don't think I'd get in today. Importantly, in my non-alum interactions with the University, and there have been a couple, they've made it extremely clear that I was dealing with corporate Notre Dame, not a school with which I had a personal relationship.
If you believe that the personal relationship was undamaged, well, you're in error.
So here I sit in Maryland. I can spend a few bucks and expend at least 3 days to see the game on a campus that sometimes seems unrecognizable or have a better view on TV. My deep emotional relationship with the University has long since cooled. USC is, well, USC, but are they the USC I remember? No. Would I be more likely to attend if our team was playing in the way I remember as Notre Dame football? Yes. But would that be enough to overcome all those other things? Maybe, but it's not the way to bet.
ND football games were special because ND was in my heart. The head shed has been changing that for a long time and the seat I might have been in will be empty.
I know at least a dozen people who, if the game was a 2:30pm kick, would attend.
They have no interest in trying to drive home to the Chicago area at 1am, and don't want to pay ridiculous prices for a hotel room they really shouldn't need.
I'd like to take the kids and walk around campus, but I'm not making the trip for a BS opponent like Toledo and night games make the kid aspect an impossibility.
Even before Covid, it was. Toss in a pandemic - especially for an older fan base like ND’s, and you’re going to get a lower attendance. Just look at the data…college football attendance has been declining for years.
And the start times go both ways. Lots of guys I know with younger kids can’t go to the earlier kickoffs because of kids sports…especially if they want to tailgate at all. The later kickoff times make it easier to do your morning kids crap and then head to the game. Yeah, it’s not as easy to bring the entire family to a night game. But sometimes easier for just the guys (or girls). This obviously isn’t a factor for older fans with older kids.
Many of those factors are in the control of schools who choose to embrace them anyway. Key things I can think of are: 1) the increasing number of bodybag games 2) fungible entertainment experience 3) increasing television coverage 4) longer season with more games to spread out static in-person 5) regional expansion of conferences seeking teams with markets with little historical connection to conference brethren.
These are things that ND has largely embraced. And ND is reaping the consequences of those decisions. And one of the factors (increased TV coverage) is not relevant to explain ND's lost demand. ND should be in a better position to insulate itself from bigger industry concerns. But it has chosen to dumb down the schedule, overwhelm the schedule with ACC teams with little historical connection to ND and little fan interest, and make the experience a generic, fungible sporting experience.
You truly are an ass.
me an ass. I guess I should skip that stuff to get to earlier games before catching the blue plate special so I can get to bed by 8. Maybe I should devote more time to complaining about everything about Notre Dame, and how it isn’t like it used to be 50 years ago.
“Now, get off my lawn!”
I'm not criticizing you for being involved with your children. I'm criticizing you for referring to that time as crap.
Your anger toward anyone older than you is unhealthy. At what age do people's opinions lose their value? Have you circled that date on your own calendar?
“Crap” wasn’t mean as “bad”. Just as a synonym for “stuff”. Ease up, and stop being so angry. I participate in more kids related activities (be it coaching/organizing or just watching) than the average bear (sorry….another saying. I don’t mean actual “bears”). I’m not going to take crap from some jerkoff like you about that.
Anyway, I don’t hold anger towards older people (well, except for the ones who repeatedly tell me to sit down at the stadium!). I love and respect most of them. It’s just exhausting to listen to all the bitching and moaning and reluctance to any change because things aren’t exactly how they were back in the day. Embrace change every once in a while. It’s often for the better!
To a national championship(s), and to do it with dignity and good people leading the way.
Heck, I actually think this message board’s unstated mission (and uniqueness) is almost entirely based on that principle.
Think? I’ve done it > 30 times over the years. More going west than east on the toll road for sure. But that’s anecdotal. Is there hard data on this? It’s brutal to make that drive that late. Particularly to the northern suburbs.
My cousins have a house in Long Beach to which I have access.
Living in the southern suburbs means I can be at the Joyce Center in an hour door-to-door on non-FB days.
I know people in the western and northern burbs unwilling to make that drive that late. Having previously lived in Downers Grove, I don't blame them.
that trip in an hour!
It is dysfunctional, but is not the train wreck your namesake city is.
rivalry games between Tier 1 opponents where at least one team is ranked in the top 15?
Are those games struggling to sell tickets?
What was attendance for Iowa Purdue, which isn't a rivalry?
Especially when it’s a cross country rivalry where you can’t easily just drive to the game.
Didn’t someone mention struggles with Florida-Georgia?
No issues with FL-GA, despite not being on a college campus.
Also, PU-Iowa was sold out. In case you didn't feel like looking it up.
How about that big intersectional rivalry between IU and Cincy?
Oooops. Doesn't fit.
Maybe going across country would effect Oregon-OSU. Oh shit, the Ducks fans flew. Nevermind that.
I'm sure I'm just missing something.
Yes, ticket sales are down. Big games between rivals, especially when one is ranked at home...perhaps not as much. Perhaps.
There are only a handful of tickets left. We are just talking about secondary market prices.
At the ratings for MLB playoffs not pretty.
Blue bloods all over are having these issues. Attendance is down en masse. Florida just sent out a promotional email to push $10 tickets to play Samford (edited from the original post when I thought this was Georgia).
Swarbrick is an ass and the university's disgusting price gouging is certainly a contributing factor, but I think there are outside forces at play here that are affecting attendance around the nation. I'm not sure if it's temporary. To be clear, though, there are things ND can and should be doing to help mitigate the issue, but of course the leadership in place right now isn't keen to do those things.
attendance record for their game against Alabama, 106k+. (I say "practical" because technically it's second place, but the first place game occurred with temporary seating during their stadium expansion.) And that 106k was after two straight losses. Nevertheless, their crowd was on fire from beginning to end. And I'll add that tickets were VERY reasonably priced.
It made me nostalgic for the old ND.
It's confusing because the logos are the same but you can't buy tickets to the Georgia game on the Florida website.
It is a college football issue though. That golden goose really looks like it's sucking wind.
In which case a large data point of my post is out the window. But yes, CFB attendance is down all over- see the link I posted, and it seems worse this year.
I did just see also that Florida is not installing the 6,000 endzone seats they typically do for big games, so the original point of that game does somewhat stand.
Florida's stadium is fixed capacity with no temporary seating. I should know, I worked in that stadium for 8.5 yrs.
Georgia, on the other hand, brings in those temporary seats in their west end zone, as they did for the ND game in 2019.
That's actually kind of surprising to me (that the Jaguars aren't installing the extra seats) as I would think there would be absolutely rabid UGA interest right now.
It will be a pro-USC crowd. Some or many ND fans are pathetic. You have to feel for the players. But it's obvious the fans care more about making a buck than supporting their Irish.
You are badly out of touch.
Plus, SC is down this year, so the SC glitterati is not going to be making the trip to South Bend.
It will most definitely NOT be an SC crowd at ND.
Edit: old roommate in Chicago has 4 for sale, no interest. I have 2 for sale. No interest.
The tickets are “sold”, so the revenue is there. But there will be lots of empty seats
Not building toward anything this year - arguably any year. I got back my plane ticket cost and rental car and of course avoid the basic costs of being there 2 days. I find it harder and harder to care about being on campus. It does very little for me anymore. The ND I went to barely exists anymore. As my roommate said, it is a 10 minute walk to the edge of what used to be the outside edge of campus.
The kind whose acceptance of mediocrity makes it all the more difficult for ND to win a title, or the kind who expects ND to live up to the standard it educated us all to believe was the truth?
Enjoying a decent (but not spectacular) run doesn’t make someone a bad fan. Boycotting going to games because you disagree with a head coach does, IMHO. But hey….to each his or her own.
When can we expect to start seeing the spectacular ones?
Or do you believe those aren't possible and you're willing to accept whatever you're given?
But I still think we could pull it off if the stars align right. I’ve forever said that I like Kelly, but don’t love him. I like that he has us as a solid top program again. I don’t know if he can take us to the top. But as long as he’s recruiting well and keeping us close, I’m not going to bitch and moan too much. Maybe he’s more of a Richt at Georgia type guy. But you know what? That dude kept Georgia close enough that the next guy could take it to the next level. So if the right guy comes along, I’m fine with moving on from Kelly. I really won’t she’s a tear whenever he or ND moves on. But I hope we don’t move on for the flavor of the month that many here have pined for (guys like Herman, Fleck, Campbell, and ones like that).
Anyway, even with the program in the “not quite elite” position it is now, I think it’s worthy of supporting and going to games when I can. I think that is what a good fan does (or at least what a fan who enjoys ND football does). And that loyalty will make it that much sweeter if we can ever get over the top (with whatever coach that may be).
The "my loyalty will make things so sweet" pablum is new, I'll have to add it to the card.
Brian Kelly demonstrably can’t and won’t take us to the top. In his case past performance does predict the future. Enjoy the ride though, while you help to enable those who have emasculated what once was a unique and special place.
attended so far? The good fans. When you are finished pulling your worthless head out of your ass, feel free to type a reply.
I’ll take back the bad fan comment (toward you….that should be more directed to the boneheaded boycotting group of people here!), so apologies there. Your attitude still stinks, but I applaud you for going to that many games. This will be three for me as well, but it’s probably easier for me to get to.
I didn't realize that you were a bad fan.
Not a ssingle change made, turd laid, or buy game played has had any role.
Just not for some of the geezers like you.