Notre Dame Sellout Streak Coming To An End At 273 Games

Notre Dame's home football sellout streak "will end at 273 games" with Saturday's game against Navy, according to a front-page piece by Eric Hansen of the SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE. It will be the first non-sellout at the 77,622-seat Notre Dame Stadium since Thanksgiving Day '73. The streak had been the "second-longest in NCAA history" behind only Nebraska's current streak of 373 games. Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick said, "It was never sort of important to me to keep it alive, but I understand why other people thought so." He acknowledged that the streak "could have snapped at several different points over the past few years, and that the university got creative in extending it." This year's schedule features three home games with "no marquee names" as opponents. It is just the "fourth time since the stadium expanded from its old 59,075 capacity" in '97 that the Irish have played at least three November home games. Swarbrick: "Late-season games, where weather has the potential to be a major issue, become more of a challenge for us that a place where your fan base is essentially local. That's our reality." Hansen notes one other possible reason is that the school "simply has priced itself out of comfortably selling out anymore." Swarbrick admitted that he "received plenty of pushback" when Notre Dame went to a tiered pricing structure several years ago (SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, 11/14).