ESPN: Notre Dame sellout streak expected to end at 273 games

per ESPN:

Notre Dame's streak of 273 home sellouts is expected to end with Saturday's game against Navy, according to the school.

The streak -- the second-longest active run to Nebraska's 373, according to the South Bend Tribune -- dates back to the final game of the 1973 season, when Notre Dame beat Air Force on Thanksgiving Day in a game that was moved from Saturday to accommodate an ABC telecast. Notre Dame Stadium then had a capacity of 59,075 and the turnstile count was 57,236. The current capacity is 77,622.

"Based on ticket sales through Wednesday, we do not anticipate sellouts for our games against Navy and Boston College [on Nov. 23]," Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said in a statement. "That this comes during a time of sustained success for our football program reflects both challenges impacting the ticket market nationwide and the unique dynamics of this year's schedule."

https://www.espn.com/college-footba...re-dame-sellout-streak-expected-end-273-games

Go Gophers!!

I have been to a few games in the past 5-6 years and it's hard to imagine them not having a sell out. They are down this year but obviously part of the national trend.

If they wouldn’t have fired Tracy Claeys this wouldn’t be a problem.

Wait a minute

The shine is finally wearing off the gold dome.

The gimmick of sellout streaks has always grated, corporate help, etc. Its a dumb thing to fixate on.

Navy is bringing six buses of students (just a bit of trivia for ya).

Pompous Elitist said:

The gimmick of sellout streaks has always grated, corporate help, etc. Its a dumb thing to fixate on.

Click to expand...

Nebraska's is a complete joke. They've had games recently with more than 20,000 no-shows. But still a sell-out!! Yay!!

Agreed, silly.

We sold all our tickets! Whoopity doo!

Sports teams that always claim sellouts run into a pair of problems that eventually cause the sellout streak to end. By constantly trumpeting sold out games, it tells the fan who's interested in attending games "Don't bother. Tickets are too hard to get", even though these might be thin sellouts or sellouts on paper but not in actuality such as a sponsor committing to buy a maximum of 1,000 tickets to a game but then leaving the seats on general sale and only buying what was left of the allotment after the game. Meanwhile when tickets are typically sold out, even if getting over the finish line is hard, it makes the sales staff slack about pushing sales.

I don't know much about Notre Dame's sales efforts, but are they calling on Catholic Church parish social clubs and parochial schools in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan to push group sales? Are they blanketing businesses in the region to see about groups and season tickets? My guess is they are not because they've never had to. Now they do and they'll need to change how they approach ticket sales because so many fans keep buying during a sellout streak due to the perception of tickets as a commodity, something valued that must be held on to due to the fear of being shut out long term due to not buying.

When tickets for the lesser games suddenly become easy to get, it can lead to a mass exodus of season ticket holders and single game buyers, because people feel it's easier to shell out for the visits of the occasional brand name team (USC comes every other year, and Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, Texas A&M, Clemson, Florida State, and Miami are all coming soon) than to pay to see Northern Illinois, Toledo, Marshall, Western Michigan, and even the likes of Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Navy, and Boston College. Notre Dame has lately played some teams in what are technically home games in other cities outside of the usual season ticket package. In 2021 their home game against Wisconsin is at Soldier Field. It would probably serve Notre Dame better to play that one in South Bend to boost season ticket sales.

In my opinion, Notre Dame made a huge mistake aligning with the ACC. it really makes no sense. I have to imagine games against Duke and Va Tech and Boston College are not as interesting to their fans as Michigan St, Michigan, Ohio St, Penn St, Nebraska, Wisconsin, etc. They've got a big head and think they're special, but maybe their time is passed.

Notre Dame big money boosters have a fiery hatred for the Big Ten. I don't know the exact history of it, but they will do whatever they can to make sure ND never joins the BT. Even though that's ridiculous.

But they had to do something, to put one foot into the CFP system, and it also gave them some level of guaranteed access to the Orange Bowl and probably some of the ACC's other bowls. It was a compromise, and if it wasn't going to be the Big Ten, then the ACC was the only conference that made sense. They were already in for basketball, which also made sense given the old Big East, and access to games against BC, Syracuse, and Pitt.