South Bend Experience

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Curious to read about others experience in South Bend. First time for me to watch a game there and honestly I had a great time despite watching us crap our pants. Never met a fan base so nice and respectful. Everyone wished us the best of luck and as we were leaving the stadium plenty of folks were giving us kudos for a well played game. I wasn't in the best of moods but I can't hate on the Irish fans.

But.... when we got back to our car (White field) someone put a dead bee on our windshield. They chopped it up in five pieces and put it in a plastic bag..
 
Apparently they don't stand during a game. Bitch behind us pissed me off with that öööö.
 
Had a fantastic time. Fans were overwhelmingly positive, and hard to imagine a better setting for college football than a packed Notre Dame stadium. I will definitely be going back if we play there again.

BainbridgeJacket said:
Apparently they don't stand during a game. Bitch behind us pissed me off with that öööö.
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Definitely a bit of a whine and cheese crowd, which probably has a lot to do with how pleasant they are.
 
They're 99% polite and respectful, but I get the sense that it mostly comes from condescension - everybody's a little brother in awe of almighty Notre Dame, and they just stand back and let us bask in their glory.

JRjr
 
I enjoyed it a lot! I would actually go back during one of our bye weeks (mainly to take my mother).

In our section 118, everyone stood for the entire game, for the most part.
 
Agreed Fans were cordial. Didn't hear a single bit of smack talk from any and the staff at the stadium was incredible. Made you feel very welcome to be there. Our ushers could use some pointers.

Only gripe is what's up with no jumbotron?
 
They've held off on a jumbo trim to keep the mistique but from what I understand they are adding one in the next few years. I didn't get a chance to go this time but went in 07 and had the same sentiments...best away game atmosphere ever. Fans are absolutely the classiest I've encountered and I'm glad to hear that even after a victory this was the case. My dad went in 97 when we got beat and had an ok but not great experience with the fans and told me 07 was that way because they were humbled on the field, but it sounds more like his experience was the fluke. Hope everyone had a good time despite the game
 
Even though I was incredibly disappointed by the outcome, the overall experience was unforgettable.

College football at its best.
 
Agree they were as cordial this time as in 07. The ND student support is incredible. And once again... ND stadium may be one of the prettiest stadiums in CFB. There's only one tunnel, and then just beautiful concentric rings of aged wood bleachers. I hope those new luxury boxes/anthropology labs don't screw up the aesthetics.

Also, anyone know what's up with the alternating grass planters behind the teams on the sidelines? Is that just to insulate the teams from the fans? Or is there some other practical or symbolic function?


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Second time up there, same observations:

- Soooo öööö white...and old...I swear we found the only Indian on campus and my Indian fraternity brother spent the next 5 minutes trash talking him and ND in Hindi

- Way too quiet...nothing so much as a peep before the game...no cheers, no yells, nothing...it was like they were going to a funeral...about 15 of us posted up in a major crosswalk to try and drum up some friendly cheers and fight songs back and forth...we just got stares

- They rely heavily on recorded music and it made me feel like I was at an NFL game...also they miked the hell out of their band which is pretty crappy since their band is already like double our size...if you have to mike your band, you're doing it wrong

- Their student section is legit but their regular fans look like they're at the movies...I listened to their local sports show on the way out and apparently there is a huge dispute whether anyone should stand at games and maybe they should just have extra areas set aside for those that actually would do something so crazy as to stand while the game is being played

- Fans were pretty nice and friendly, staff working inside the stadium were some of the nicest people I've ever met, whoever was running the stuff outside the stadium was a gigantic tool...parking was the most I've ever paid for parking anywhere as well

- Knights of Columbus steak sandwiches are legit
 
Only smack talk was wtte of "that's a long drive home" as I was leaving the stadium. Sounded like it was coming from a ~15 year old girl.

Stadium experience was great. Really surprised at how loud it got at times for the shape of the place.

South Bend itself is pretty dumpy, from what I saw.

Good time overall.
 
Very nice fans. Not so sure about the fairness of the stadium set up. They had their massive band set up on the field in the corner behind our bench then had several huge speakers set up aimed right at our bench. The band played non stop and was clearly trained and instructed to be as disruptive as possible to us. Plus the clock keeper seemed to be shaving seconds on the play clock and game clock. (The advantages of both are evident with the wasted timeouts) That combined with the strangely slippery surface, the non stop commercial breaks, and numerous poor calls just made you feel a sense that GT never had a chance.

Won't be surprised if they get drubbed by Clemson. Take away the rediculous home field advantage and I think they're a slightly above average team.
 
I enjoyed it. It was a great place to see a game and a nice campus. I had a tasty steak sandwich and a mediocre frozen banana (the kid selling it was yelling "God bless Notre Dame and God bless these frozen bananas", so I had to try one). It also wasn't a bad drive from the house. We got home before 11. I'm thinking about going back for the Navy game.
 
theDude47 said:
Second time up there, same observations:

- Soooo öööö white...and old...I swear we found the only Indian on campus and my Indian fraternity brother spent the next 5 minutes trash talking him and ND in Hindi
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LOL. Were you in Sec. 15? If so, I sat right beside you. If not, there were at least 3 more Indian folks in the stadium.
 
Great experience despite the result of the game. Had several interactions with Notre Dame fans and almost all were friendly, welcoming and spoke knowledgeably of us and the game.

Didn't see much of the campus but didn't seem too special from whatever little I saw...lot of construction much like GT campus at any time.

The stadium itself had a good atmosphere. Like others have mentioned crowd seemed split on standing / sitting but no one around us seemed to mind is being up on big plays for us.

The CAA ride to game / tailgate was well organized. Good deal and glad we did that. Also, was great to see a number of Tech fans around wrigleyville and at the Cubs game on Friday.

I think we had good numbers at the game, it was hard to tell our fans apart from theirs from a distance given they had a lot of folks wearing gold/white as well.
 
theDude47 said:
- They rely heavily on recorded music and it made me feel like I was at an NFL game...also they miked the hell out of their band which is pretty crappy since their band is already like double our size...if you have to mike your band, you're doing it wrong\
Click to expand...

This was pretty much exactly what I noticed. Poor man's NFL game. The PA system sounded AWFUL and they played awful Boston frat\rave music at volumes beyond what their system was capable of.

I suspected that they put mics on their bass drums which somehow also made their marching band sound like an awful Boston techno dance club too.

The whole "tradition is important, so we don't have a jumbotron" thing coupled with piped in music and amplifying a band just rubbed me the wrong way. Add in a fan base that seemed about as entitled as possible and "above" even acknowledging our fanbase and I'll give the gameday experience a C+.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but I really expected more from such hallowed football ground. I'm glad I went, but see no need to go back.
 
vapspwi said:
They're 99% polite and respectful, but I get the sense that it mostly comes from condescension - everybody's a little brother in awe of almighty Notre Dame, and they just stand back and let us bask in their glory.

JRjr
Click to expand...

ND hasn't won anything in over 25 years. Not sure why anyone in 2015 would be in awe of them.
 
fans that I talked to were friendly, but I didn't talk to many. Kinda seemed like they really think they're something special so they ignore visitors. eh, whatever. Probably doesn't help that everybody that goes there wants to see all the cool stuff they have... /sarcasm.

Campus was pretty idyllic. Tailgating, beyond the south lot, was basically non-existent. TD Jesus was cool, stadium was just ok. Not having a jumbotron sucked, imo. Turf field didn't look right, either.

Staff of the stadium was all great... very nice people.
 
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