Notre Dame Sellout Streak Still Intact

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Before each home game the front page of the Notre Dame football media notes packet has a line that reads "Saturday is the ___th consecutive sellout at Notre Dame Stadium.

Since 1966, every Irish home football game has been a sellout except one -- a 1973 Thanksgiving Day game vs. Air Force.

The number in the place of that blank this week was 208, but as it turns out the streak was briefly in jeopardy early Friday afternoon. I stopped in for a visit with Notre Dame ticket manager Josh Berlo at about 2:30 p.m., and Berlo assured me that rumors of the streak's demise were greatly exaggerated.

"Washington returned a few more tickets than we expected," said Berlo, "but they will all be gone in an hour or so -- if they're not already."

As it turns out, by late afternoon all the tickets had indeed been sold.

Last Saturday's game at Purdue was far from a sellout, as more than 3,000 tickets went unsold at Ross-Ade Stadium, the first non-sellout for a Notre Dame game at Purdue (the schools are about a 2-hour drive apart) since 1963.

Obviously, the recession has had an effect on discretionary purchases such as football game tickets.

"We haven't seen much of a difference on our end," said Berlo, "but we have been having more tickets returned by the visiting school than normal."

There is little concern in the Notre Dame athletic department about the streak extending to 209. Next up at home for the Irish: USC.