Weather causes game day traffic

Drizzly weather did not dampen the weekend's festivities, as approximately 100,000 people braved consistent rain and wind for Saturday’s nail-biter against Stanford, according to Mike Seamon, associate vice president for campus safety.

“Overall the weekend was a huge success for the University, both on and off the field," Seamon said. "As anticipated, we had quite a large number of visitors on campus Friday and Saturday. On Friday, we had over 1,200 people attend the football luncheon, 3,525 people visit the Stadium tunnel and over 7,500 people attend the pep rally, which was held in the Compton Family Ice Arena.”

Across the board, the number of fans touring the Stadium remains consistent with previous estimates from the Rice and Michigan games, for which the total amounted to 3,600 and 3,500, respectively. Attendance at the luncheon has continued increasing from 850 before the Rice game and 1,110 during the Michigan weekend, according to Seamon.

With so many thousands of fans arriving for the game, the rain impacted traffic conditions by causing more vehicle congestion, Seamon said.

“Not surprisingly, our biggest challenge this past weekend was the inclement weather,” he said. “Given the cold, wind and rain, it was a later arriving crowd than usual to both campus and the Stadium. The lateness of the crowd put some added pressure on incoming traffic and the last minute rush into the Stadium, but overall things ran very smoothly.”

Notre Dame Security Police (NDSP) Chief Phil Johnson said fans leaving campus also faced difficulties due to the weather.

“Traffic ran smoothly before and after the game although rains during the outbound slowed traffic a bit resulting in some delays on area streets,” he said. “Police assisted motorists on streets and roads surrounding campus and facilitated traffic departing campus.”

Johnson said NDSP made seven arrests Saturday, marking a decrease from the 16 arrests made Sept. 6, the day of the Michigan game.

“One ticket was issued [Saturday] for minor consumption of alcohol,” he said. “Two arrests were for public intoxication or public order related offenses. Five people were arrested for shoplifting.”

Seamon said the University used the Stanford game as an opportunity to celebrate the recent successes of other Notre Dame teams, “including the 2013 NCAA men’s soccer national champions, the 2014 NCAA runner-up men’s lacrosse team and the 2004 NCAA women’s soccer champions.

“We also had former football monogram winners form the tunnel at the beginning of the game,” he said. “This weekend was the Notre Dame band alumni weekend where over 800 band alumni members joined the current ND band for the on-field pre-game and halftime performances.”

“Even with the bad weather, it was a great weekend for the University capped off by a huge win over Stanford,” Seamon said.