The Aer Lingus College Football Classic is over for another year, but the crowd noise will ring in the ears of those present for a few days yet.

College Football is a serious sport, but it is also one of the best party atmospheres in and around a stadium that you can enjoy.

Tailgating and pep rallies are a novelty within sport on this side of the Atlantic, but it is brilliant to see generations of fans expressing their affection and attachment to their team.

When it gets to the stadium, this is a three-plus-hour extravaganza that is meticulously choreographed and riotously ‘in the moment’.

Phoebe Schechter is a familiar face to viewers of Sky Sports NFL coverage and, as an ambassador for the Game, was pitch side during breaks in the action to interview the likes of Dublin Mayor James Geoghegan and his Atlanta counterpart Andre Dickens; Matt English of Special Olympics and Anne Kiely of Aer Lingus to talk about their long-standing partnership.

To some, tuning into American football is a bewildering blur of physicality and speed, but when you know it, you are entirely absorbed.

After last year’s blowout, this was a much closer game. Never more than a single score separated the teams, and Georgia Tech emerged victorious with a walk-off field goal as the clock expired.

They came in as underdogs and into a stadium where Florida State was in a raucous majority, but they got the job done. Getting a home team victory is good for the long-term future of the team behind the event, as it will allow them to continue persuading serious teams to come to Ireland for this Week Zero event on the sports calendar.

We wrote last week about the importance of the soft power that the Classic brings to town. With two more years already booked in and such a positive vibe about the series continuing, that is likely to continue into a longer-term positioning of Dublin as the unquestioned European home of the sport.

The show’s noise, colour and spectacle will leave a lasting memory for the more than 40,000 that packed the ground. Roll on 2025.

 

 

 


 

 

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