It's a home game for ND. It's not the magnitude of Michigan vs. Florida in Dallas in 2017, but it's noteworthy nonetheless.
I'm a little diappointed myself. Clearly Lucas Oil is a great stadium and while I've never been to Indy I'm sure it's an excellent place to visit in the fall. But I was hoping that in the spirt of the Shamrock Series that we would be playing somewhere else but Indiana. However I do understand that next years schedule is somewhat of a problem for Swarbrick with the addition of 4 or 5 ACC schools that had not been contemplated 3 or 4 years ago. We haven't as yet offically announced the schedule. Rice folks around here are wondering if they have a game with us or not.
Terry, I'm sure that most fans outside of driving distance to LOS are disappointed. For one thing, the seating capacity is less than ND stadium (mid to high 60s). Needless to say, I'm excited. I hope the ticket prices are reasonable. I want to go, but I'm not going to be fleeced. At my age, I'm very content to watch the game on my big screen TV even if it's being played in my city.
kp, I can't answer that question. ND has not commented in the past if they receive a financial incentive to play their "Shamrock Series" games in different cities. Last year's SS game vs. AZ State was in Jerry's stadium. so it's reasonable to assume the teams received some compensation. The SS games are home games for ND, so they need to gross the equivalent of a sellout crowd at ND Stadium, which would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 to 7.5 million not including concessions and parking. How they make those arrangements with the stadium hosts is anybody's guess. Past SS games were played in New York, Chicago, and DC. For the ND folks who are interested, the LOS seating capacity is 67,000, 13,000 less than ND Stadium. Thus, to gross the equivalent of a South Bend home game, ticket prices would have to increase a minimum of 20%. I'm guessing the increase will be much greater than the minimum. Past history has shown that ticket prices for SS games are in the range of $125 and above. Also, Purdue will be allotted 10,000 tickets, which is double the normal 5,000 allotment for visiting teams at ND Stadium.
Sid, Yeah, it's a little different for the private schools like Notre Dame. They don't have to report everything they do like the public schools. I don't know whether Alabama gets paid for every season opening out of conference game they play but I do know they have tried to schedule a reputable school for the first game of the season for the the last several years.