Gouging the Domers

Make that "Pay Like A Champion Today."

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about how badly Notre Dame fans are gouged by South Bend hotels and restaurants. One choice rate at the South Bend Marriott on the weekend of the Michigan game is $649 for a room. That's right, $649! The article notes that that rate is higher than the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. The South Bend airport has also added an extra 100 parking places for private jets due to demand. The ethics of this type of gouging is debated in the article.

The pain of losing to Michigan after paying $649 a night should be enough to make an average Notre Dame fan consider suicide.

Bottom line: Going to college football games, especially games in college towns without an international airport, is expensive. Thanks for the newsbreak Wall Street Journal. If they start charging me $649 for a room in Athens, that may be the only way I ever consider buying one of these:

Even then, I still can't get the numbers to work out right at $2.50 a gallon gas.