Jacksonville Sports Council President & CEO Rick Catlett said that ticket sales for Saturday's Notre Dame-Navy football game at EverBank Field have "topped 53,000," according to Garry Smits of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. Additional sales this week and a "strong walk-up crowd on a day that is forecast to be perfect Fall weather might push the attendance over 60,000." That easily will "beat the last neutral site" -- DC's FedExField -- to host Notre Dame-Navy in '14, which drew less than 40,000. Jacksonville also will "top the 48,870 that saw the game" in Dublin in '12 and the 47,291 that witnessed the game in Orlando in '00. Catlett: "Now that the week is here, we think sales are going to pick up. It was pretty brisk until Notre Dame lost to Duke (on Sept. 24). But Notre Dame is fighting to get bowl-eligible and Navy is still right in it for the American Conference, so there’s a lot for these two teams at stake." Smits notes Navy has historically "taken its home game against the Irish to neutral sites, beginning with the first game of the rivalry" in '27 when it was played in Baltimore. Navy’s home Memorial Stadium seats "just over 30,000 and the school has usually doubled that number and more with the game played elsewhere" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 11/1).
