Here's an indicator of how excited Notre Dame alumni were about
this year's football team before the season even started: The
University's ticket office had to mail $5.2 million in refunds
to losers in the annual alumni ticket distribution lotteries,
a record high.
Alumni who contribute at least $100 to Notre Dame can put in
to buy up to two tickets to as many home and away football games
as they like, but they usually have to be lucky. A pool of about
33,000 tickets is set aside for contributing alumni to purchase
for each home game. Any time the number of tickets requested exceeds
that supply, a lottery is held.
That was the case with all six home games last year with demand
being the greatest -- 54,437 tickets requested -- for ND's October
15 showdown with USC.
Demand also exceeded
Notre Dame's allotment for every road game except for the finale
at Stanford. Enough seats were available for that game to satisfy
all requests.
The money sent in by those not selected in the lotteries is
mailed back to applicants.
(January 2006)
