Notre Dame experience.

Supersizethatorder-mutt

Supersizethatorder-mutt

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dressedcheeseside said:
Here's a short vid of my view of the field pregame. At the end you see my ND grad big brother and my GT grad little brother and his son, my nephew.

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Boy, you had great seats. I was up in the upper level corner of the endzone. Not bad seats, but not as good as sideline ones.
Another thing that really impressed me Saturday was that the stadium was full a good half-hour before kickoff, and the student section was packed. Why are Tech fans so notoriously slow in arriving at games, and many of the students don't get there till midway through the first quarter. It sure wasn't like that when I was in school way back when.
 
dressedcheeseside

dressedcheeseside

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Supersizethatorder-mutt said:
Boy, you had great seats. I was up in the upper level corner of the endzone. Not bad seats, but not as good as sideline ones.
Another thing that really impressed me Saturday was that the stadium was full a good half-hour before kickoff, and the student section was packed. Why are Tech fans so notoriously slow in arriving at games, and many of the students don't get there till midway through the first quarter. It sure wasn't like that when I was in school way back when.
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Their students blow ours out of the water in this respect. My brother says each year they have a game day shirt that ALL the students get and wear to ALL the home games. If you noticed, they were all in green at the game. All of them. Also, ND doesn't stick 'em all in the endzone and they don't put the bands in the seats, either, to save them for paying customers. The bands are down on the field sideline the whole game.
 
Supersizethatorder-mutt

Supersizethatorder-mutt

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I don't mind the band being in the stands at BDS, but I DO think it was better when the students were all in the east stands. When I was in school, back in the 60s, the underclassmen were in the lower east, and the seniors and grad students were in the upper east. I remember the 1962 Bama game in particular, when the student section was packed an hour before kickoff. I guess those days are long gone, and it's a pity. Also, it's a helluva lot easier to get to Grant Field now than it was in the 60s and certainly a lot easier than it is to get to South Bend.
 
LibertyTurns

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The Basilica was outstanding, the rest of the campus was pretty average in my epxerience. Got a ton of advice to go to the Grotto before the game. It was nice, but being game day detracted significantly from being there. It was mobbed. Wished I could visit during an off period. Football stadium was underwhelming. Guess I had it hyped so much before the visit I was expecting something really phenomenal. Fans were super nice, VERY well informed & genuinely friendly but extremely quiet. Maybe all the noise funnels to the field, but we were only half way up and it was the quietest football game I have ever been out save the intermittent blaring of some obnoxious noise over their loudspeakers. Without the sound system you would have thought we were at the Masters, except at the Masters there's an occasional roar when a good shot is made. There's no video board so no replays, play clocks are hidden. They really, really, really have bad cellphone coverage. With friends coming from multiple directions, this made connecting impossible. The only score updates you're getting is the 4-5 games they run on the board, sound familiar? Field was fake grass from what I could tell. Not a fan of that. Real football is played on real grass. They must have had the whole student body at the game, plus dates. Quite impressive but what else would you do on Saturday night in rural Indiana?

Glad I made the trip, but I wouldn't make a second one. I'm afraid a life of growing up Catholic & revering Notre Dame and its awesome campus I had never seen had my expectations unreasonably high. Glad I chose GT. Warts & all it's a much better place to go despite GT doing it darnest to make life miserable "back in the day".
 
dressedcheeseside

dressedcheeseside

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LibertyTurns said:
The Basilica was outstanding, the rest of the campus was pretty average in my epxerience. Got a ton of advice to go to the Grotto before the game. It was nice, but being game day detracted significantly from being there. It was mobbed. Wished I could visit during an off period. Football stadium was underwhelming. Guess I had it hyped so much before the visit I was expecting something really phenomenal. Fans were super nice, VERY well informed & genuinely friendly but extremely quiet. Maybe all the noise funnels to the field, but we were only half way up and it was the quietest football game I have ever been out save the intermittent blaring of some obnoxious noise over their loudspeakers. Without the sound system you would have thought we were at the Masters, except at the Masters there's an occasional roar when a good shot is made. There's no video board so no replays, play clocks are hidden. They really, really, really have bad cellphone coverage. With friends coming from multiple directions, this made connecting impossible. The only score updates you're getting is the 4-5 games they run on the board, sound familiar? Field was fake grass from what I could tell. Not a fan of that. Real football is played on real grass. They must have had the whole student body at the game, plus dates. Quite impressive but what else would you do on Saturday night in rural Indiana?

Glad I made the trip, but I wouldn't make a second one. I'm afraid a life of growing up Catholic & revering Notre Dame and its awesome campus I had never seen had my expectations unreasonably high. Glad I chose GT. Warts & all it's a much better place to go despite GT doing it darnest to make life miserable "back in the day".
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Don't tell CPJ it was quiet, or JT, either... or the OL..... or the Abacks.... or the wr's.......or the waterboys, for that matter......
 
FrostedOrange

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Wife and I headed to Eddie street Commons for dinner after the game. It's due south of the stadium, mixed commercial development. We ate at restaurant called 'The Mark'. Highly recommend
 

first&ten

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Northeast Stinger said:
Hope people will understand my short rant and take it in the right way.
I grew up in the South where we pride ourselves on hospitality. I am afraid much of that hospitality died a long time ago and the South is simply living off its reputation. I married a yankee 31 years ago and up until five years ago we lived that entire time in Georgia. Everywhere we have lived or visited in Georgia she has had at least one unpleasant experience with someone making fun of her accent or telling her what a horrible place the north is. She has even had total strangers try to pick fights with her over politics or social issues because of where she is from.

Since we have lived in the northeast we have not had one person make fun of us from moving here from Georgia, no one has made fun of my accent and everyone is truly interested, if they have not been to the south, to know what it is like and where they should go. Meanwhile we have discovered more great places to visit than we have time for because of people wanting to show us around or help us out.

When we retire we will probably spend most of our time at a house we have in the North Georgia mountains. I hope I experience again the hospitality that I have experienced up north.
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I will say there some Tech fans that are nothing but trash when it comes to visiting fans. I saw the Tulane player bus crossing 5th st. at Spring and several Tech fans giving the old "finger". Not necessary at all!
 
GTie79

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We were actually guests of a close friend that is a ND alumus that lives in Atlanta. They actually apologized for all of the construction. Understand the buildings going up on both sides of the stadium will include new restrooms and there will be a new building built on the south that will have the large Jumbotron. They are also going to install ribbon boards as well. But they said there will continue to be "no advertising" within the stadium. A number of ND fans told me they didn't like the piped in music either and I expect that will be reduced once the Jumbotron is in place. I even heard they may reduce some stands in the north to improve the view of Touchdown Jesus.

We even attended the pep rally on Friday in our GT gear and we were treated great there as well.

My second trip to ND and have been impressed both times with the place and the people. Wish we could have played better though.
 
IEEEWreck

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People get an A for hospitality. Nice folks all around. I was wearing an old gold coat and many people stopped to talk to me about it, then talked for another 5 mins about ancient football traditions. Got the sense that (especially among older fans) that they see GT as a kindred spirit in terms of program values and traditions.

Campus gets a C. Was there with parents with various replacement joints, and their ADA compliance efforts were a joke, especially compared to BDS.

Touchdown Jesus weirds me out. The Basilica was nice and all, but fairly standard for well endowed Catholic universities in the US. The grotto was what took me from 'oh nice campus' to 'weird Jesus themed Epcot' in my head. Making a pilgrimage to a scale replica of a pilgrimage site is, I suppose, very midwestern America of the 60's-80's. It just doesn't work for me, I guess. South vs. Midwest culture clash or something.

I'll be back when we return though. They did a lot to be ready for us. I want to watch us return the compliment.
 

stevo0718

Georgia Tech Fan
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Was
dressedcheeseside said:
Are you nuts? You must have been sitting up high because down on the field it was deafening.
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sitting literally on the field in the end zone.

Maybe I was too far away from their student section? I dunno, very quiet. Also, their band was on the other side of the stadium.
image.jpg
 
Tdippp

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stevo0718 said:
For a school with loads of money, unbelievable that there is no jumbo tron and are just now building luxury boxes, especially with the cold winter weather. I figure no jumbotron + NBC on the broadcast leads to fewer replays, and so no one can re-see their receivers pushing off
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They're actually putting one in, it'll be in all the construction going on around the outside
 
COJacket

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stevo0718 said:
Quietest 80,000 people of all time. Wouldn't consider it intimidating which does not account for all off the unnecessary time outs...

For a school with loads of money, unbelievable that there is no jumbo tron and are just now building luxury boxes, especially with the cold winter weather. I figure no jumbotron + NBC on the broadcast leads to fewer replays, and so no one can re-see their receivers pushing off.

All that being said, it's a beautiful place in the middle of a dumpy town in northern Indiana, you can understand why there is so much pride there. Talked to an usher who had worked there for 15 years and was still working his way up the ranks, wasn't even a supervisor yet. The people all love ND and were very kind hosts.

But, hope they lose games so that they don't take our bowl spot.
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the jumbo tron is coming along with the new boxes that you saw being built.
 
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