I read these boards almost every day, and I can't recall the last constructive thought that you've contributed. And, I'm not an ACross hater. I've seen many times where you've helped raise the level of discourse. Just hasn't been recently.

The beloved Notre Dame Stadium was ruined with the 1998 expansion. There was no character, no improvement. It was just "let's throw on 20,000 extra seats, who cares how it looks". An alternative decision to remove the 98 expansion, go back to 59,000 seats and the original exterior, and find somewhere else to build the academic buildings/student spaces is about the only choice that would be better than what they executed. But keeping the stadium as it was post-98 didn't fit with anything on campus. It was a poured-concrete eyesore.

Have you been inside the stadium since Crossroads opened? It's as good as you're going to get. Add to it the significant academic and student space created which freed Rolfs to be renovated for Men's and Women's basketball. I really can't understand how anyone has issue with this. Sure, it was expensive, but a significant portion was paid for with capital contributions -- and let's not pretend those same donations would have been made to build new buildings scattered around campus for the Departments of Music, Anthropology, and Psychology.

And, like it or not, the campus has expanded and student expectations have changed. It's not 1988 anymore and tuition isn't $7,500 per year. Would it make you feel better if they converted the old golf course into a farm like the early days of the university? Or maybe just return everything to how it was when you walked off campus in May 1988? That sure sounds nice.

to "recover from". Worst case scenario is there are no football games to watch from the sky-boxes or no one wants to buy the sky-box seats. Even then, they have the 3 buildings which I assume were paid for primarily with donations.

They will keep using the buildings for their purposes. Maybe they didn't "need" them (how many of the incredible number of buildings ND has built did they really need) and maybe it is stupid to have the student center so far away from the dorms at a school that requires on campus living for 3 full years, but the buildings are still very nice.

I said it when they built it, but it looks to me like the buildings were built so they could demo the stadium and have a nice quad between them. I wonder if that was the long term goal any way.

I would be surprised if big time ND football dies quickly. 20 years from now, maybe, but for now it will probably be business as usual if we fix the virus.

It basically sits in the hypotenuse of the right angle created by Mendoza, DeBartolo, the Engineering buildings, OShag, and Jordan/Science buildings.

It's the most heavily trafficked academic area on campus.

to be in the center of campus. That's the issue.

Despite your complaint about placement, it's a great space and location for them. And, they still go to "LaFun" on a regular basis too. Admittedly, if you lived in Morrissey or Lyons (or Carroll), it's a hike, but classes are right there anyhow.

You dolt, what would your kids have to do with this conversation? Actual students don't know how to use the student activity center. That knowledge can only be gained by attending the school in the pre-internet days. Now that I think about it, also pre- nearly every building that is used as a classroom and half of the dorms.

Thank God I'm well rested.

It isn’t close to the dorms or the dining halls.

I would think a good use would be to go there between classes if it would take too long to go back to your room. I suppose for DeBartolo, that would make sense.

I would expect off campus kids to use it a lot, but you can’t live off campus until senior year.

Was it Jenkins that called the area the center of campus or something like that? Obviously, that area is not the center of campus. However, as noted previously, the current ND student spends the majority of their class time in that area during the week making it a reasonable location for a student union.

the NFL is still extremely popular, and they get great TV ratings for the draft, combine, and other various events in addition to their games.

College football has watered things down too much and is almost seemingly trying to ruin their product. That said, there is a lot of money at stake and they'll figure it out.

The concussion issue is a real one and hopefully time spent studying the issue and possible treatments will help things dramatically.

Doubling down on football would have been making a bigger better football-only stadium. ND took a football-only stadium, made it suitable for other events like graduation and concerts, and appended a music building to it.

They have both kinds of music - Country and Western.

They cashed in on the willpower, fueled by football, to build something big. They designed it to last and be useful long after that willpower and even football itself are long gone.

for a meaningful game. But then personal seat licenses (or whatever ND wants to call these things) along with the price of the average individual game ticket exploded to the point that many decades-long season ticket holders and lottery participants just said no in a manner Nancy Reagan would have been most proud.

So why did PSLs and average ticket prices go so high? The cynic in me says we're not bringing in enough money to pay for Crossroads; I don't think the naming rights for the three big rectangles bolted to the big oval even added up to $100 million out of the total price tag of $500 million for Crossroads, so where was the rest of the money supposed to come from to pay for it all? I think ND bit off a lot more than they could chew with this Johnny-come-lately football stadium accouterments concept that was already starting to be out-of-fashion by the time ND decided to jump on board.

And then Jenkins agonizes over how they are to pay for it all with ND expected to lose $100 million over the next year - as a result of the pandemic. (I guess Under Armour dividends aren't cutting it.) But Heaven forbid he touch the precious endowment.

Perhaps debacle is the wrong word to describe Crossroads. White elephant might be more like it. At least Joe Walsh had accountants to pay for it all.



Life's been good to me - so far.