Notre Dame Football: 5 Future Sites Where The Irish Could Play Navy
Notre Dame football and Navy have a history of neutral site games.
The Navy vs. Notre Dame football rivalry is one of the best and most storied in college football, mainly because it’s built on respect.
In the past, the rivalry has been taken to Chicago, Cleveland, New Jersey, Orlando and even Dublin, Ireland.
This year’s matchup takes place at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California.
There’s plenty of other cities and stadiums that would be a great backdrop for the Notre Dame-Navy rivalry. Today — in no particular order — we look at five potential sites for future matchups to take place.
Aloha Stadium, Aiea, Hawaii
Aloha Stadium is just a short drive from Pearl Harbor, so how cool would it be to see a stadium packed with 50,000 members of the Navy? It would be a great memory for everyone involved, especially for those in attendance that would be traveling to other parts of the world in the future. Plus, on the Notre Dame side of things, imagine what a game in Hawaii would do for recruiting.
AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
This is about a half hour drive from the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Texas. Notre Dame fans also travel well, so the thought of 80,000 plus people in a big time NFL stadium would be pretty cool to see. Every year, the season opens with the Advocare Classic played at this stadium, in addition to other rivalries, mainly within the Big 12. Between these games and the Dallas Cowboys, the biggest problem would be finding time for the game to be played.
New Era Field, Orchard Park, NY
This may be a head scratcher, but hear me out — Buffalo is a football town. The amount of Notre Dame shirts and bumper stickers outweigh Syracuse and the University at Buffalo combined. Although a polish restaurant, Gadawski’s in Niagara Falls pretty much revolves around the Fighting Irish. There’s a few other bars in the area that turn into Little South Bend on Saturday’s. Not to mention, Buffalo is a pretty good midpoint between the two campuses. Plus, Buffalo tailgating is some of the best around. A game in Buffalo would be a new, exciting world. There’s no doubt the game would sell out rather quickly. Imagine a snow game in November?
Las Vegas Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada
I’m sure our own Nathan Erbach — currently a Vegas resident — will like this one. The only stadium on this list that doesn’t exist yet, Las Vegas Stadium’s current planned opening is in 2020. Since Las Vegas is such a big travel city, I’m sure there would be a lot of people interested in this game.
Given the recent success of the Vegas Golden Knights, there seems to be a desire for big time sporting events in the city. Nothing against UNLV, but a matchup that has this much history behind it would be a great time for everyone involved, except for maybe the coaches.
Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
Notre Dame and Navy have met in Chicago before, but that was way back when Knute Rockne was roaming the sidelines in 1928. That game was at Soldier Field, and although that would also be a great spot for the game, Wrigley Field gets the nod because it’s an equally historic venue as the game it would be hosting.
Wrigley Field has already held college football games, a Northwestern-Illinois matchup in 2010. The next game is scheduled for 2020, when Northwestern returns to take on Wisconsin.
Next: Notre Dame vs. The Service Academies: A Brief History
Notre Dame and Army played legendary games at Yankee Stadium, so why couldn’t Notre Dame and Navy do the same in another MLB stadium?