A while ago, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman attended a ground breaking ceremony with a hard hat on looking forward to a new football facility being built off Courtney Lane across from the new indoor practice field and sharing the same block as the Gug football and athletic building. If you’ve paid attention to social media in recent days, this new facility was close to opening.

That day came today as the Jack and Kathy Shields Family has officially opened.

A place like this is quite literally beyond anyone’s dreams. It wasn’t that long ago that there were discussions about the lack of cafeteria space in the Gug, amongst a litany of issues the football team was experiencing in an ever-expanding college football world.

Is all of this necessary? Well, that is certainly up for debate.

In a world of rosters being paid tens of millions, perhaps this is very necessary. Whether you agree with every corner of the new building or not, this clearly sets Notre Dame a class apart from the rest of the country in 2026.

Here are a bunch of screenshots from the incredibly well produced video:

Go Irish!