Notre Dame HC expects ‘50 50’ crowd at Lambeau Field for Week 1

Posted by Admin September 3, 2026 NFL

The Wisconsin Badgers will be at Lambeau Field for the season opener against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in one of the most expensive games on the docket this weekend.

It will be a primetime showdown on NBC, with the game starting at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday. With the game being at Lambeau, one might naturally think that the crowd may favor Wisconsin more. But head coach Marcus Freeman believes the crowd will be quite even for the season opener.

“Not every day or every week you get to play in an NFL stadium with some of the history that Lambeau has,” Freeman said this week. “And I do want them to take a minute in pregame to take it in and look around because I am. I’m going to look around and make sure that I have gratitude for the opportunity to play in a Shamrock Series game.

“I think the environment will be really cool just because of what I experienced at Soldier Field in 2021. I expect probably a 50-50 crowd. But then as we get closer to kickoff, you’ve got to start narrowing your focus to the things that matter. And so take it in, absorb it, don’t waste it, because then I think you’ll regret it if you didn’t take a minute to look around and take it all in. But as we [get] close to kickoff, we’re gotta start narrowing our focus to get our job done.”

Head coach Luke Fickell had a similar message about playing at Lambeau Field, which will hit home for a lot of the in-state players.

“I think when you get to game day, I think when you pull up there, I’m sure there’ll be some emotions,” Fickell said this week. “But I think the magnitude of the game, I think the magnitude of where we are as a program and a team, I think these guys all in this program, whether it’s their first year here or a guy like Aaron Witt’s 6th year here, there’s a lot riding not just on this week but on all the things that we’re doing. And so I’ve tried to counterbalance that in a lot of ways. I’m not trying to make this about anything more than what it is.

“I’m not making this thing about anything more than there’s a rivalry or there’s some storylines of some sort like that. There’s enough on their plates, and whether they’re from Green Bay or we’ve got guys that they’re in their first year here, I think everybody understands and recognizes maybe that there’s a little different pressure in the world today, and in particular for us. And so I don’t know that the magnitude of even where we’re going to be at right now has had nearly as much to do [with it]. Now we get there on Sunday, I think that there’ll be a little bit of something different. The lights come on. I think that’s a good point. Obviously, there’ll be some things to manage, but that’s not something I think [about] because of all the other things we have to worry about throughout the entire week.”

It will be a surreal way to kick off the season for both teams, and ticket prices are high ahead of the game. We’ll see which side is favored more in the sidelines at kickoff on Sunday.