City Abuzz For Irish

SAN ANTONIO – Matt Kelly, along with his mother and father, secured their perfect spot in front of the Alamo Friday evening for the Notre Dame pep rally almost two hours before the festivities even began.

The three had driven to San Antonio from Norfolk, Va., and they wanted to savor every moment of the unique experience of watching their beloved Fighting Irish play a “home” game far away from South Bend.

“We’d like to get up to Notre Dame Stadium sometime, we’ve talked about it,” said Kelly, 29. “But it was heck of a lot easier getting tickets to this game than any game in South Bend.”

And availability is really the crux of this “off site” home game endeavor. About 4,000 other Notre Dame fans joined the Kellys at the pep rally in downtown San Antonio Friday, in anticipation of the football game tonight at 7:30 p.m. EST against Washington State at the Alamodome.

“It's cool,” said Irish senior center Eric Olsen. “It's fun to go to these games in different places every year and get to see the rest of the country.”

Tonight marks the first of what Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick hopes to be an annual barnstorming mission with his football team. The Irish are set to play Army in the new Yankee Stadium next season and Arizona State at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in 2013 as part of this scheduling endeavor.

“We’re especially focused doing this for the younger alumni, who tend for a host or reasons to be able to get to a location like this easier than they can get to South Bend for a game,” said Swarbrick, who attended the pep rally Friday. “We always saw this as especially attractive to our younger alumni. But it’s a combination. We also hope that fans from around the country take advantage of something like this and we hope we make new fans in a market like this.”

Irish fans Robert Muldowney and his wife, Sarah, were in town from St. Louis. David Mancinelli, a good friend of former Irish linebacker Ned Bolcar, was in town from Alpha, N.J. There are also plenty of Cougar supporters from Spokane, Wash., and everywhere in between.

The Riverwalk area and downtown streets were packed Friday with plenty of fans from both teams. Notre Dame officials estimate after the walk-up ticket push today, about 55,000 seats will be sold for the game, which will leave a few tickets available inside the 65,000-seat Alamodome, a venue that will be full of interesting Halloween costumes tonight.

“In this economy, two teams from pretty far away, I think that is great,” Swarbrick said of the ticket sales.

Notre Dame is treating this as a home game, complete with blue game jerseys and the 400-member band. Seats on eight different commercial flights out of Chicago were needed to get the entire band to Texas. Those flights arrived almost all day Friday to get the band in place for the pep rally.

Tonight will mark the seventh time Notre Dame has played in a dome, the Irish are 1-5 in their first six tries. It will be the 15th time Notre Dame has played on Halloween, they are a perfect 14-0 on Oct. 31. The offsite game also gives NBC a chance to televise a Notre Dame game in prime time for the first time in the 19 years the network has been televising Irish games.

About a dozen Notre Dame officials came down early Friday and stayed downtown while the players didn’t arrive until late Friday evening and stayed far away from the hustle, bustle and distractions of downtown.

Irish head coach Charlie Weis is treating this as a business trip, even keeping his team away from the pep rally.

“There will be curfew, and they won't be on the Riverwalk,” Weis said on Tuesday. “Our fans will be on the Riverwalk, but our players, if they're on the Riverwalk after 10 p.m., you know we have a problem.”

The final revenue total this game will generate won’t be known for some time, but judging by the downtown streets Friday night, this is obviously a boon for the local economy.

“When you do something like this, try something new, you want to do it with a good partner and the city has been a great partner,” Swarbrick said. “I’ve been to a number of (NCAA basketball) Final Fours here so I knew it would be like this. It’s a great event city. I’ve always loved my time here. It’s just creating a great atmosphere for our fans and I think it will continue right from the game.”