OT: Notre Dame Stadium Renovations

Submitted by Baugh So Har on

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

As I think most are aware, the design of Notre Dame Stadium was based off the Big House, only on a smaller scale and with an end zone tunnel. It took them 3 years to copy Michigan's architecure back in 1930, and now in 2017, 7 years after our own renovations, Notre Dame has again followed suit:

https://crossroads.nd.edu/

The result of this $400M project looks awfully familiar: press box suites, video boards, LED lighting, etc.

Can't wait to renew our rivalry with them in South Bend next year.

 

That said, is it Gameday yet?

WolverineHistorian

October 5th, 2017 at 2:07 PM ^

As are the NBC announcers. 

I remember watching a game in the 90's where ND was playing horrible against Stanford and the NBC guys said the reason for their awful play was because the players were most likely extremely tired from preparing for midterms that week and didn't get much practice in. 

Apparently ND is the only school that has midterms.

jmblue

October 5th, 2017 at 12:56 PM ^

That just seems odd to me.  It seems to reinforce the idea that football put ND on the map as an instiution.

I like that our athletic facilities are separated from Central Campus.  The stadium isn't the focal point of our campus.  We were a great university before we ever played sports.

 

Hail Harbo

October 5th, 2017 at 5:42 PM ^

Perhaps you are unaware that Notre Dame, much like Michigan, Harvard, Princeton, Chicago....all saw the game of football as a means of advertising their respective schools.  One hundred years ago those schools, and many many others, believed people made a direct correlation between success on the football field and success in academia.

jmblue

October 5th, 2017 at 6:16 PM ^

All of the schools you mentioned - except Notre Dame - were already well-respected before they launched football teams.  Now, having good football teams didn't hurt that any, but it did not put them on the map.

ND is another story.  It is the example of a school that capitalized sports glory to become a respected institution.  It was nothing, just another little Catholic university, before Rockne.

 

 

Mike Damone

October 5th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^

the renovations in the world won't take the stench out of that place.

Will be great to see our ass kicking of them highlighted on their new video board.  Gary and Winovich will look like monsters on that board, with Touchdown Jesus sadly looking over the devastation of the Irish in the background.

To hell with Notre Dame...

4yearsofhoke

October 5th, 2017 at 11:08 AM ^

I did my undergrad at Michigan and grad school at ND... Although a UM fan first, the renovations at ND Stadium are pretty baller (including student centers and academic spaces in the buildings) and the buildings on the stadium are huge.

BlueinLansing

October 5th, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^

ND's renovations look nothing like Michigan's.  In fact walking near ND stadium you would have a hard time realizing its a stadium unless you knew it was already there.  Theyve done an amazing job architecturally incorporating the buildings into the academic landscape.  First class all around.

 

Michigan's renovations are very nice, and very corporate and rather dull really.  And fwiw there's nothing in Michigan's renovations, or ND's for that matter, that you can't find at any other major football stadium venue thats been renovated in the last 10 years plus..

Remember Michigan resisted luxury boxes while places like Happy Valley and Camp Randall built massive additions for their well to do alumni and corporate partners.  Even Sparty built luxury suites before Michigan.  Michigan and ND were well behind the curve.

 

bluepow

October 5th, 2017 at 11:46 AM ^

You call it dull, I call it clean and classy (at least on the inside, the exterior brickwork isn't dull at all).  Also there's one very important thing at Michigan absent other major programs: an advertisement-free experience.  To say Michigan Staduim is corporate is comical.  It's the opposite.  It's Michigan.  It's beautiful.

s1105615

October 5th, 2017 at 11:27 AM ^

And I honestly did not like it...at all.



To be fair, the seats we had were not there the last one I was in the stadium, so I guess without the renovations I wouldn’t have been at the game last week, but I’m not sure I would have been worse off for not going.



The two main problems I had were that the new video board completely blocked the view of the library from the stadium (touchdown Jesus), and that the new speaker system was ear-bleed inducing loud, and it felt like it was coming from the new video board, not from a set of speakers that I was unfortunate to have been seated by. I had a raging headache halfway through the 2nd quarter and it wasn’t because the crowd was into a close game.



s1105615

October 5th, 2017 at 1:06 PM ^

We came in through Gate E and went to section 120something (corner endzone on the ND sideline looking toward the video board to our right, pretty close to the press area as i could see the press stations from my seats)...either way I was like five rows from the top and couldn't see the library and i was pretty sure it was in that direction.  The previous renovation that added an additional ring of seats ahd already blocked most of the library the last time i was there (for UM @ ND during RR's first year and what a terrible game that was).  Either way, the level of the audio was way too much and I did not enjoy the experience because of it. 

Wazoo

October 5th, 2017 at 12:31 PM ^

I was at the game as well as my son is a freshman there.  The videoboard is attached to the building opposite of the Touchdown Jesus endzone.  They purposely didn't build a 4th building so as to not block that iconic view.  They even took down the little scoreboard from that end so you can see the Word of Life even better from the stadium  The only way your view of the Word of Life would have been blocked by the videoboard would be if you were standing behind the videoboard which would have put you outside the stadium.  

I would agree with you about the speakers.

s1105615

October 5th, 2017 at 1:07 PM ^

I must have gotten turned around with my bearings then.  Either way I couldn't see the library from where I was and I was pretty high up in the stadium, like 5 rows from the top on the ND sideline with the video board to my right

Wazoo

October 5th, 2017 at 1:31 PM ^

Touchdown Jesus would have been to your left -  at the "open end" of the stadium.  My guess is you were obstructed by the club seats/press box also to your left of you were near the top  I was in the end zone to your left and it seemed like the only speakers were coming from those by the videoboard.  I can't imangine sitting near the speakers.

https://gigapixel.panoramas.com/notredame/football/20170930/

Wazoo

October 5th, 2017 at 1:37 PM ^

Touchdown Jesus would have been to your left -  at the "open end" of the stadium.  My guess is you were obstructed by the club seats also to your left if you were near the top 

I was in the end zone to your left and it seemed like the only speakers were coming from those by the videoboard.  I can't imangine sitting near the speakers.

https://gigapixel.panoramas.com/notredame/football/20170930/

DealerCamel

October 5th, 2017 at 12:04 PM ^

I like the grass rooftops.  

So if the buildings attached to the stadium have classrooms, student centers, the department of music, etc... how does that work on gameday?  Do they charge to get in the buildings?  If not, are there windows overlooking the field from those buildings, and will that affect student attendance if students can just watch for free from their cozy quarters?  

It's pretty ambitious, though, and it's a nice idea they've implemented. 

taut

October 5th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^

Did ND go through a "Halo" phase as well? Or did they display better judgement after seeing our attempt to "add excitement to the gameday experience"?

BursleyHall82

October 5th, 2017 at 12:09 PM ^

Here's a fact for you: The project manager from Barton Malow who was in charge of the Notre Dame stadium project was Neal Morton, a former U-M walk-on basketball player who played at the tail end of the Fab Five era.