The following is courtesy of 2017 alum Brian Mann who was in attendance for the opener against Temple.

For those of you who follow Notre Dame Football even remotely, you’re aware that this past Saturday marked the debut of the brand new stadium following the completion of the Campus Crossroads Project. I trekked back out to campus for my first game as an alum and want to talk about the changes brought about by this massive project. Plenty has been written on the specifics since progress first began in November 2014, so I won’t really talk about the actual details. Instead, I want to focus on how these changes have impacted the game day environment at Notre Dame, both good and bad.

Aesthetics

One of the more minor changes that came about as part of the renovation was an improved concourse. The stadium is much easier to navigate due to new and improved signage, both in the concourse and in the stadium itself. Walking around the concourse, it is very obvious where in the stadium you are, as the field location has been painted on the floor, indicating whether you’re in-line with the 30 yard line, midfield, etc. It’s definitely a minor thing, but it was nice to have.

Behind Section 8 inside the stadium.

There are also plenty of aesthetic changes to the concourse, all of which are part of the message of “honoring the House that Rockne built” it would seem. Brick, similar to that of the original stadium, now adorns almost every surface, while banners featuring tickets from games past hang between the section signs. And my lord are there a lot of these banners! In addition to this, there are giant images of in-game action on display. I only saw images from very recent years (e.g. Will Fuller and Jaylon Smith), but it would not surprise me if they had other iconic moments hanging up elsewhere.

Another one of the cooler aspects of the visual changes is what was done with the old wooden benches. Similar to the usage of old tickets on the banners, there are various displays that use the old benches as another way of honoring the history of Notre Dame Stadium. This is a great project that is consistent with the entire theme of the renovation and promotes environmentally friendly practices, too.

Wooden bench feature. Awesome!

This brings us to one of the final changes to the appearance of the stadium, and that is the new benches. Now this one is a little hard for me to write about, as this was the first game since pre-2013 that I haven’t stood for the entire game, but the new benches are obviously an improvement over the old ones, especially because the numbers were supposedly painted wider apart by a whole 2 inches! In all seriousness, though, anytime you go from uncomfortable wood to slightly more comfortable composite, it’s a win.

Also, the Wi-Fi is excellent now, making those Twitter updates much easier to keep track of. All this to say, the renovations I mentioned above are a clear positive. The stadium feels much more modern without abandoning what many fans loved about attending games there. It’s easier to navigate the stadium, there’s lots of cool history on display, and it doesn’t feel like you time-traveled back to the 1990s while watching the game, although maybe you don’t like being able to use your cell phone and this is a negative for you.

Video Board and Gameplay

This is the most important change that everyone wants to know about, though, isn’t it? Did the big screen kill Notre Dame Stadium forever? Does it pollute the purity of the greatest college football stadium of all time? Did they sellout on their beliefs for money?

No, no, and no.

The only way you will think the video board negatively impacts the game day experience is if it’s because it’s different and things that are different are scary. The people who hate the video board probably hated when they started playing night games at Notre Dame and when they added replay reviews and overtime rules to college football in general. The video board is a huge positive. End of story.

During warmups, they highlighted some of the Irish players’ backgrounds. Prior to kickoff, they had video edits that introduced the band. They showed the pregame prayer before the players went to the tunnel. They showed actual highlights and accomplishments instead of reading about them when honoring people during stoppages in play, be it Bob Crable, Ian Cole and Bryan Rust, or Ed Maginn. They had features on players, made relevant stadium announcements, showed fans having fun, and had a number of different graphics during the game to keep the fans engaged.

My personal favorite was when they would show a picture of First Down Moses on first downs. Comedy gold!

The other obvious improvements brought about by the big screen are being able to view replays during the game. Play under review? We get to see that Tony Jones Jr. was down (maybe) before the ball came out! Notre Dame’s safety took a bad angle on a tackle, leading to a Temple touchdown? We all get to watch it again! Brandon Wimbush doesn’t slide on a run? We all get to wince as the big screen shows just how big that hit actually was!

This isn’t to say there weren’t problems, and there are a few changes that, I think, negatively affected game day.

First, there were some coordination issues between the video board operator and the band. For the first Irish Jig of the year, the band was interrupted by something being played on the screen. This kind of interruption is unacceptable, and the student section made its displeasure known. This happened on a few other occasions, too. The band would start playing Everytime We Touch or the Celtic Chant only to be cut off by some sort of video programming. Hopefully issues like this get worked out as more games are played, but it was a little annoying to see the band relegated to second-tier hype duties, which was definitely one of the more reasonable concerns when it came to the video board.

Speaking of the band, both the Notre Dame band and the visiting band now sit in the stands instead of on the field. I’m having a tough time deciding if this is a net negative or simply neutral because the band was moved to the student section to make room for the away team tunnel. I absolutely love the away team tunnel because those guys go marching one-by-one onto and off of the field. Watching them trickle through is a thing of beauty. Such a great addition.

That being said, it led to some awkward moments with half the band not being able to play during songs as they worked their way onto the field to get ready for the halftime performance. This wasn’t a huge issue for the Notre Dame band, but it was definitely a bummer when it came to the Temple band. Temple has a cool fight song and it didn’t get played after their first touchdown because the band was making its way down from the upper level, another issue in my book, to get ready for halftime. Definitely makes it harder for your team to build some momentum when there’s silence after a score. Or maybe that’s the idea.

Either way, I didn’t care for it all that much. Plus, if they’re not on the field, how can Golden Tate jump into their arms? So there were some obvious hiccups in the first game when it came to integrating the video board and the band, but I’m certain these things will get smoothed out as time goes on. Also, they didn’t have a recording of Tim McCarthy make the safe driving announcement, but Joe Theismann appeared on the video board to read it. That is unacceptable in my book and they must return to the one and only teller of puns.

2017 home opener panorama.

Conclusion

So I obviously think that the stadium renovations were a success. There’s plenty to like about the changes because, at the end of the day, you still feel like you’re in Notre Dame Stadium. At least I did. There’s a ton of history to appreciate while walking around the stadium, and you’ll never get lost or be unable to find your friends while doing so. You can keep excellent track of the game if you go to the concession stands due to the plethora of monitors showing the broadcast (supposedly the bathrooms have been improved, too, but being a professional unprofessional, I didn’t think to check them out).

You know if you should heckle the refs after a call thanks to the video board. You can go nuts over replays of Brady Quinn being beautiful and playing beautifully when they inevitably honor him instead of just hearing a list of cool things he did.

Plus, you can get updates on Texas losing to Maryland as it happens instead of finding out after the game. Maybe it’s cause I’m a spoiled millennial and I like to kill things, but I don’t think Notre Dame Stadium has died because of these changes. I think the university has done an excellent job modernizing the game day experience, while still keeping true to what made Notre Dame so many people’s team of choice.

As always: Go Irish! Beat Bulldogs!