If I were Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick, and I was sitting in one of the suites in the highest levels of the Notre Dame football Stadium, I would say inside my head:
“Now witness the POWER of this FULLY operational battle station!”
Swarbrick had built a palace of a cathedral of a monument to college football, and everyone else should take note because the Golden Domers have re-established the gold standard.
We make the DeathStar and Emperor Palpatine jokes because we’re both kidding and we’re in awe. Just like people call Jerry Jones’ Cowboys Stadium in Texas the DeathStar as an homage to its prodigious presence, we do likewise.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/914268373390897154
Make no mistake about it, college football is an arms race these days, no matter what anyone says. In order to attract the top notch recruits, you need the elite or the elite facility wise.
Notre Dame football has a SEC level place to call home now.
Check that- they have a home that most SEC programs would be envious of.
Check that- Notre Dame football has a facility that would put a lot of NFL stadiums to shame.
If you haven’t been to a home game yet this year, and there have only been three (Temple, Georgia, Miami of Ohio), then get thee to one as soon as possible because this season is your first chance to see all that they have done with the place. There are student facilities and classrooms in the football stadium itself now.
You’ll see academic halls as add-ons to the Notre Dame football stadium and there’s a wonderful cohesiveness to the design too.
Everywhere you look the facades are reminiscent of Tudor dynasty castles in the English countryside, and the lettering is 1930s style art deco.
At times the building is evocative of the Empire State Building; elsewhere it’s Hampton Court Palace.
There’s a whole lot that’s new but the “killer app” is definitely the outdoor patios on the higher levels, and the vistas that they provide. This goes double at sunset.
Look in the tweet above and in the Instagram below:
The addition of the jumbotron, and the new luxury boxes, and the new press boxes were strategically placed so that one can see all the campus landmarks (Touchdown Jesus of the Hessburgh Library, the Golden Dome Basilica, the church) unencumbered.
Almost everything has been ameliorated and upgraded, including the famed tunnel and immortal national title banners wherein.
While visiting the Notre Dame football stadium last year had a bit of a “pardon our dust” vibe, this year it’s classic chic, golden era retro splendor. They are four home games left- USC 10/21, NC State 10/28, Wake Forest 11/4, Navy 11/18.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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