Off-Season Rehash: The ND Stadium Atmosphere Sucks

We've been almost impossibly busy this offseason, so much so that the start of the season approaches us in a way that makes us question our personal experience of time and whether or not Einstein was a little confused about what is or isn't possible. And so there are a number of things we'd been meaning to really hammer away at whilst standing upon this pulpit, and we've manage to do very little of that. But this Monday, Holly, the girl who blogs about football, brought up that Nick Saban is talking tough about putting ND on the Alabama football schedule while the 2 athletic departments involved are wondering how to fit that in between games against Louisiana-Lafayette and WSU and reminded us of something that really, really needs to be addressed:

I have been to games in Tuscaloosa (my favorite road trip), and in South Bend. And with that in mind, let us just offer a humble suggestion here for all our friends at NBC Sports when the home-and-home rotates to the Midwest: Bring extra camera crews for the action in the stands. You will get more out of this culture clash than out of an extra hour of Jay Leno every night. The atmosphere at your typical Notre Dame home game is staid enough to make the key-jangling, down-in-front Michigan fans look like the bloody-minded Cajuns of LSU, and the first time a liquored-up Bammer gets into a physical altercation with an elderly Domer usher for refusing to cheer at a lower volume, or sit down so others behind him can enjoy the game*, or remove his underwear from his date's head, by Touchdown Jesus do we ever wanna see it in HD.

Holly further illustrates her point of view on the ND stadium "atmosphere."

As a child of perhaps ten years old I was ordered to take my seat during a game by an usher at Notre Dame Stadium, so that the fans behind me would not have to stand. At a football game. I have never fully recovered from this.

We assume that the girl who blogs about college football is not 12, and is at least 19, or 25 if she's like an average Tennessee grad just now making it in the real world. Which means that her first poor experience in the stands that Rock erected was at least a decade ago and the absurdity that is the "energy" level at ND stadium on an average day has been allowed to thrive (?) at ND since at least 1999. It's a shame and a crime against the sport itself.

All of this, of course, will devolve (after passing through "home game scheduling sucks" and "what has the team done to get excited about") into great debate about how so-and-so's 85 year old grandfather, 1st among 3 generations of ND grads in the family of O'Shaugnewhatever, has every right to sit in the stands and expect, having purchased a ticket, to be able to sit in the seat. And we've no argument there. He has every right to sit in those seats. But I'm reminded by my 2nd taking of business law where the professor once said, "The right to remain silent is just as important as the right to run your yapper." See? 2 seemingly mutually exclusive rights can live in harmony, and so I propose that those of us who have not spent a lifetime smoking, those of us who can show up to a game in 65 degree weather sans winter parka and hot chocolate, and those of us who wish to risk brain aneurysm due to over-vocalizing of support for the team have every right to expect to be normal, enthusiastic college football fans when they purchase a ticket. Further, they have every right to completely ignore the existence of the seat for which they purchased a short-term lease.

This is a tired fight. It's a fight that may not end until certain people die and others (ahem, Cappy) retire. But it's a fight that, every once in a while, must be fought, and we hope that the generation or two of graduates and students younger than ourselves will take up the torch in this cause and light a few fires.