The 2023 Aer Lingus College Football Classic featuring Notre Dame and Navy on August 26, 2023,in Dublin, Ireland, is sold out. Over 40,000 international fans are expected to make the trip for the event, including over 39,000 fans directly from the United States. This migration will represent a new world record for the largest number of Americans to travel internationally for a single sporting event.
The game between the Fighting Irish and Midshipmen will be the third meeting between the two teams in Ireland. The first was held November 2, 1996, was a 52-27 Notre Dame victory. The most recent was September 1, 2012, when the Irish defeated the Midshipmen 50-10. The 2023 meeting will be the first Notre Dame home game played in Ireland, as the previous two meetings were Navy home game designations in the series.
The 2023 game has been valued in an independent report to be worth in excess of $158 million to the Irish economy. Based on previous college football events held in Ireland, data indicates that American visitors for the game will stay an average of seven nights in Ireland and visit on average three different destinations. The most popular of those destinations include Dublin, Galway, Belfast, Killarney and Cork.
“The demand for tickets for the 2023 Aer Lingus College Football Classic proves that Ireland is the home of College Football outside of the United States,” said Padriac O’Kane, the Co-Founder and Director of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
“This year’s event in Dublin will see the largest movement of Americans into Europe in peace time with the game set to provide a huge boost to the Irish economy and hospitality sector.”
The game will be televised live on NBC and Peacock in the United States while Sky Sports will broadcast the game live to Irish and United Kingdom audiences.
An official game week app will go live at the start of July when the full official events program will be released. The app will be pushed out to all ticket holders, including the over 40,000 international fans and will with a focus on recommendations for destinations, attractions, restaurants and bars across Dublin and Ireland. A downloadable guide to Dublin is currently available here.
The game will kickoff at 2:30 PM South Bend time (7:30 p.m. Dublin time) on August 26th,
Fighting Irish Preview will be in Dublin bringing you comprehensive coverage of the game and the festivities leading up to it.