It didn’t take much of an effort to see the empty seats at Notre Dame Stadium for the Irish home opener this past Saturday. The first game at the stadium since pandemic restrictions for attendance have been lifted however resulted in roughly 15,000 empty seats.
It was the lowest attendance for a game at Notre Dame Stadium (pandemic year of 2020 not included) since it was renovated and added roughly 20,000 seats prior to 1997.
Surprisingly sparse crowd in #NotreDame Stadium for home-opener with Toledo. pic.twitter.com/ld4I1vw3tx
— Irish Illustrated (@timprister) September 11, 2021
In Monday’s Letter to the Editor in the student newspaper The Observer, author Stephen O’Neil took a torch to Notre Dame administration regarding attendance and the decision to air the game on Peacock:
Something is wrong here. A professed Catholic university that has been built on the loyalty of its local supporters, its alumni (subway and traditional) and millions of others around the country, has forgotten them.
The University has become elitist. By limiting access to only those who can pay exorbitant ticket prices or subscribe to premium access television it is excluding a vast number of potential and past supporters.
In politics, that is called alienating your base. In this case, it betrays a tone-deafness that you have increasingly shown towards those who have carried the University through thick and thin. – Stephen O’Neil
Although I wouldn’t pay 90 bucks to see Notre Dame and Toledo my bigger concern is with Peacock, which I discussed to a degree last week. The idea goes 180-degrees from a key element in what helped build the Notre Dame brand into what it is today.
Brian Kelly didn’t have a whole lot to say about the low attendance on Monday but I’d be curious to see if that changes next week if a good amount of Purdue fans decide to pay for the majority of remaining tickets.
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