Local Notre Dame fan travels to NOLA for Sugar Bowl, 13th away game of the season

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Most Fighting Irish fans are making their plans for Wednesday's Sugar Bowl game, whether that means staying in, going out, or traveling to Louisiana.

Despite Georgia's proximity to the Big Easy, the Bulldogs will just barely have the crowd advantage.

According to Vivid Seats' Fan Forecast, 53% of fans will be rooting for Georgia.

The other 47% will be represented well in the Superdome, including a father-son duo who are traveling down for the game, Hodge and Elliott Patel.

However, the pair is no stranger to traveling the distance for Notre Dame away games!

"This year I think the plan was to do four, and it actually went out of control in a good way," explains Hodge Patel, local Notre Dame fan.

"The team was doing well so I was like, 'Why not travel more to some of these games?'"

It'll be lucky number 13 for Hodge this season alone.

They've had this NOLA trip planned out for weeks, with Hodge securing his Sugar Bowl tickets before he even knew if it would be I.U. or Notre Dame making it this far!

"It's kind of interesting because he [Elliott] wanted to go to the I.U. Notre Dame game, but I wasn't aware of his interest to go to that game, and I only secured three tickets instead of four," Hodge says. "So, my makeup to him was, 'Hey let's go to this, whether it was I.U. or Notre Dame.'"

According to Vivid Seats, the average ticket price for the Sugar Bowl is $361, with most fans traveling 615 miles to New Orleans.

Sounds expensive, but Hodge says he's got it down to a science.

"I use a lot of points from my credit card, so I have air miles, and I also have a ton of hotel points so I'm able to offset some of the costs," says Hodge.

Win or lose, it's a once in a lifetime trip for this pair and a special way to ring in 2025.

"At the end of the day, we're very hopeful for an Irish victory and that'll make the celebration for 2025 that much greater for us," Hodge says.

Hodge has already bought his tickets for the Orange Bowl, despite whether the Irish make it to Miami, he'll go either way because he has a nephew that attends Georgia.