SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame football season ticket holders may be spending part of this holiday season consulting with their tax advisers.
That’s because the new tax bill set to become law when signed by President Donald Trump will eliminate the 80 percent deduction sports fans may take for seat-license fees.
For Bob Durgin, who pays for two season tickets for Notre Dame Stadium, the loss of the deduction won’t change his commitment to buying season tickets and continuing to support Fighting Irish football.
“I thought it was a quite generous benefit in the tax code,” Durgin said. He said he wasn’t aware of the deduction until after he began buying season tickets years ago.
Durgin, an attorney, is a 1981 Notre Dame graduate who lives in Charlotte, N.C. He used his season tickets to attend three home games in South Bend this season.
Seat-license fees are a standard feature of big-time college athletic programs.
Notre Dame Stadium has an official seating capacity of 77,622. More than 4,500 of those seats belong to season-ticket holders, said Paul Browne, the university’s vice president for public affairs and communications.