The average cost of attendance to the University of Notre Dame reached $80,211 for the 2022-23 school year at a place with an endowment north of $12 billion. Setting aside the rather gross sky-rocketing price of college that has continued to plague generations of young people, at least we can say that things at Notre Dame have been improved and updated over the last 10-20 years.

Especially with the football program, there has been nary a stone left unturned. Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone into stadium renovations, locker room remodeling, new indoor practice facilities, updated weight rooms, in addition to new lounge and dining areas within the Gug complex. Plus, yet another expansion of the Gug is expected at some point in the near future.

It’s all beautiful. All throughout the locker room and stadium concourse you have this exposed tan and brown brick, mixed in with just the right amount of soft lighting, and Notre Dame insignia and branding. It all exudes class, which we know is so important to Notre Dame.

Then, you have the stairwell out of the locker room and down to the stadium tunnel:

This area has been frozen in time.

Some would say this is iconic, and maybe so. It also looks like something out of a small-town high school (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing!) but doesn’t fit in with anything else surrounding the football program.

Is it time to update this? I’m ready for any new ideas. Let’s walk through this entire fascinating corridor of Notre Dame Stadium.

Carpet/Railing: I like this part, anything that is a little bit more of a brighter blue and not the Yankees “this is basically black, blue” is okay in my book.

Walls: This is an abomination. It doesn’t fit the locker room, stadium, or anything on campus. It’s been this way for as long as I can remember and I don’t see the appeal of a creamy-white painted brick, especially when the rest of the whole damn campus and stadium have beautifully exposed brick. At the very least, this should be changed.

Lighting: Even back in the Lou Holtz days the locker room had lower lighting, and these days they’ve really embraced softer lighting everywhere in this area. Then you have this stairwell with fluorescent lighting that does not fit the vibe at all.

Miscellaneous: I’m no contractor, but it’s always been curious to me at how many pipes and electric work is exposed in this area. All painted over in that prison colored creamy-white. Is there nothing to be done about re-arranging these things? There’s a pipe directly over the PLACT sign and once you see it you can’t un-see that error!

Signage: I’m just going to come right out and say it: Let’s update all 3 of these signs. I personally like the white sign at the top of the stairs more than the PLACT sign (and any time I see that somewhere I know they are real fans) and would like to see a 3D concept put there.

With all respect to Laurie Wenger the typeface of her hand painted sign is a bit too close to Comic Sans. But, I realize that font is part of the iconic look for Notre Dame (and separates the Irish from the version we may or may not have stolen from Oklahoma).

They were on the right track inside the new Irish Indoor Athletic Facility (I’m not sure IIAC is going to catch on), that’s for sure. What if we took the stairwell in the stadium and turned the landing at the bottom of the steps into the Play Like A Champion Today WALL?

Wall >>> Sign?

I love it. The metallic gold and its majestic size, let’s do it. Do we really need the National Championship board above the PLACT sign? I say, ditch that entirely. Or, just move it somewhere else in the locker room or something. We’re upgrading the whole package.

Go Irish.