Behind the scenes of Notre Dame Stadium's latest night game light show
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Saturday’s in South Bend look a bit like this during football season: Notre Dame fans from all over the country, even all over the world gather for a day of tailgating from the corn hole, to the cook outs, to the Irish green, it all leads to one place.
Notre Dame Stadium. It is an atmosphere unlike any other, but this season, the lights went dark. Fighting Irish Media had a new game day experience in store for players and fans, alike.
“The goal of the videoboard experience is to always elevate our student athletes first but also continue to elevate our fans to be as loud and proud as possible,” says Nathan Bush, Lead Producer of Videoboards for Fighting Irish Media.
Introducing, the light show. Nathan Bush was one of many on the media team who were searching for a new way to elevate the fan experience. For the first time, the Notre Dame football stadium hit the lights.
“I think there is a lot of things that a lot of other places do, but how can we be different but when we are different how can we be sure we keep our tradition,” says Bush.
Fans, went wild for the latest night game addition, but it was the players, too, like Kyren Williams who joined the excitement! Enhancing the experience for the fans and players is the media team’s goal when they think of the ultimate game day experience.
“I didn’t get to go to a lot of the games when I was a kid growing up on the farm in Southern Indiana, so for me when I think about when I did go to the game and how awesome and cool this place is,” says Bush. “To me it’s like, we have to make sure we aren’t doing something like we’ve done in the past we have to continue to push forward to elevate and innovate.”
After a season with limited capacity, this stadium of 80,000 could not be more excited for all of the lights. The light show is expected to happen again at Saturday’s game versus UNC, with a different theme, so make sure to arrive to the stadium on time and be ready to bring the energy.