The Notre Dame Fighting Irish headed to Boston, also known as West Ireland or Ireland Jr. to take on Boston College in the Shamrock Series Football game at Fenway Park a couple weeks ago. Just by writing that sentence I now qualified to be an extra in the 1995 Tommy Lee Jones/Jeff Daniels film “Blown Away.”
ND’s trip down Yawkey Way was indeed wicked pissah, from a financial point of view. The Fighting Irish at Fenway generated 14 times the economic impact of a typical Red Sox home game.
This excerpt from a Boston study promoted by the Red Sox PR and then forwarded to Notre Dame PR which then forwarded to their media:
Of the total $28.7 million generated for Boston’s visitor industry, $18.6 came from direct spending, and another $10.1 from indirect spending. The majority of spending came from Notre Dame’s Shamrock Series game on November 21. The sold out game against Boston College had an attendance of 38,686 and a total spending impact of $22.2 million – nearly 14 times more than a regular season Red Sox home game, which typically generates around $1.6 million.
“Our visitor industry received an early Christmas gift thanks to the Red Sox hosting these special events at Fenway Park,” said Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau President/CEO Pat Moscaritolo.
“This was new spending that benefited hotels, restaurants, and attractions in what normally is a very quiet time of year for our industry.”
NBC decided to put this game on their junior varsity channel, but it still averaged 2 million viewers; they claim. NBC also claims that the Shamrock Series battle at Fenway was the most viewed football game in NBCSN history.
After posting this snippet about the Fighting Irish playing at the home of the Boston Red Sox, I now have a lot of things to do. I’m going to eat a hot corned beef sandwich with a side of baked beans and wash it down with a Guiness or Sam Adams. Maybe I’ll take a shot of an Irish Car Bomb too. All this eating and drinking will be done to the soundtrack of Dropkick Murphys, The Tossers and Flogging Molly.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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