Gearing up for gameday: OSU vs ND

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- This Saturday, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish face off against the Ohio State Buckeyes. 

“I feel like this game in particular is so special because the last time OSU played in south bend was in 1996, which, fun fact, was the year I was born,” said Noor Hadzimesic, area director of sales for the Inn at Saint Mary’s and the Hilton Garden Inn.

She says local hotels have long been sold out for gameday weekend.   

“We’ve been sold out for a while,” she said. “And we’ve had some cancellations come in here and there, and once they do, people snatch up those rooms really quickly. So, we’ve been essentially sold out since the end of March.”

And according to Hadzimesic, guests are paying a pretty penny for their rooms. 

“I would say it’s probably close to like five or six times our average daily rate that people are paying for home games,” she said.

Notre Dame Stadium can hold over 80,000 people, many of whom might also stay in hotels, eat, drink and shop.

“Because of the nature of this game, College Gameday will be in town, Ohio State’s highly ranked, Notre Dame’s highly ranked, Ohio State’s close by, we expect a big influx of Ohio State fans,” said Jake Brown, director of marketing and communications for Visit South Bend Mishawaka. “So, it’ll be north of 26 million in overall economic impact once everything shakes out for the whole weekend.”

He says local businesses are staffing up, and they know what to expect.

“They know, they know when the schedule comes out, which weekends are going to be home weekends and how to prepare,” he said. “It’s not the first rodeo for a lot of these businesses. So, they’ll be ready.”

Fans are already making their way to South Bend for one of the biggest games of the year. While certainly not a cheap endeavor, lifelong fans say it’s worth it. 

“I’m a graduate, ‘86, here. Every year, we come up for at least a game or two, have a big trip with our buddies,” said J.J. Hearn, who traveled for the game from Florida. “We were able to get tickets face value, being alumni. The hotels are very expensive, I will say that, and you know, the flight, the rental car, it’s a few thousand dollars, but it’s all worth it.”