At least he spoke about getting lights. Finally, he sees the need.
- Thread starter MilwaukeeBoilerFan
- Start date
Welcome, Mr. Burke, to 2005! So we should have stadium WiFi by 2025.
Good news!
We can play our night games at our women's soccer stadium, which Morgan did find enough money to purchase lights for, and is more than large enough to seat all of our remaining season ticket base:
https://www.google.com/search?q=new...hUFbD4KHSfSAT0Q_AUICCgB#imgrc=Ln9lP23teIFfLM:
Takes far less lights to light a field for a game that isn't televised. The biggest issue with lights at Ross Ade has always been the electrical infrastructure around the stadium can not support the power draw of the added lights and then who pays for the upgrades to that system, Purdue or the provider, so it has never been as simple as just adding lights as the current grid can't handle it.
At least that was my understanding of the issue, maybe upgrades to the grid is part of the new football complex which makes adding lights more of a reality.
Indy_Rider- that makes sense, but how did they do it when they would import lights for a game or two back when we were decent? Did they bring in temporary generators as well?
How have the TV networks lit the stadium?
Besides, with LEDs (like Mackey has now) you don't draw that much power amperage-wise.
Exactly, there is no shortage of things to bash Burke on. So don't need to reach for lights on the stadium which is really a more complicated issue that is probably partially out of Burke's control.
You mean could we rent the lights for a night game? Yes, obviously, but you wouldn't do that if there was no guarantee of a night game and the network has in the past covered the cost themselves so there was no need to. But you would not rent temporary lights and just set them up for no reason.
No - I meant why can't we install our own lights, and bring in these magic generators that ABC and ESPN seem to have already sourced.
I believe they come with the light towers, built in type thing. And then there is the financial issue as it isn't cheap to rent and run one those generators. Night games are cool, I love them, but from a revenue standpoint, they don't really bring in any more money so you would be eating into your revenue with the rental cost. Now for the networks, night games do generate more money, so that was always the incentive for the network to pay for the cost. I believe the way the Big Ten TV contracts are setup all of the money is split evenly among the schools, so it would be basically just a marketing thing to pay for Purdue to pay for the rental.
Like I said, it's a complicated issue so I never gotten why people beat on the issue so much. Now as most schools do have permanent lights though, obviously networks aren't going to want to cover the cost as they have plenty of other choices and the lack of them are making us look behind the times, so adding permanent lights is merely a perception thing as it does nothing to guarantee prime time games, but it's something for recruits to see and think they might get to play on prime time.
They are not "built in to the light towers" - I have seen them outside the stadium.
And even if they were, then buy lights with built in generators. And LED lights don't require much power anyway, as I said earlier.
You nailed it with the C word: CHEAP.
With the generator setup, you would have a lot more maintenance and upkeep cost too. It is not a practical solution.
And I will never understand why lights are such a hot button issue with people when you are only talking maybe one game a year.
Night games are a recruiting tool. For whatever reason, the crowded games I remember in the past 10 years were night games. ND, OSU, etc. Would be nice to do a night game against a non conference opponent. Generate some buzz.
All the pro-lights folks have a vision of Saturday night SEC grandeur in their minds. The reality is going to be a Thursday night tilt against an FCS (whatever 1-AA is called) team. The temporary lights have always been fine for the occasional times networks actually wanted the matchup in prime time.
You would think the EE dept would be able to advise on how to provide lights, and secondary circuit for the added lights needed for a TV game. That secondary circuit would be able to be metered separately. I don't know why they don't retrofit for all LED lighting, that is the future. Then again I like an afternoon game over a night game. Unless were talking the end of August or early September.
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Thumb on the pulse? Tell me the next FCS we will schedule in the future (not a contract already signed...)
With Hazell as our HC I'd prefer a night game without lights...wouldn't be able to see how bad we are !
Don't take it literally. I don't hope for this, but do expect that the kickoff footprint in the B1G will continue to expand in the long term, chasing TV viewer$. Friday and Sunday are probably off limits, but Thursday nighters seem probable to me. You can bet that OSU won't be pencilled in that slot over Purdue against Compasspoint State, Rutgers v Minnesota, etc.
