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.