A comment yesterday asked me to address why there aren't lights at $31 million Aggie Stadium. The opening game at the stadium, after all, was marred by 85 people needing treatment for heat illness and eight of those being sent along to the hospital.
According to UCD administrators, the reason there aren't permanent lights has to do with a spike in the price of construction materials following Hurricane Katrina. The campus had to re-budget the stadium. When that happened, administrators made the choice to take out things that could more easily be put back in later. They said the thought process went like this: Anything structural they didn't build in the first phase would have to wait until they raised another $10M for the next phase. Whereas things like lights ($500K or so) could be added in more cheaply when the money became available. In June, after months of talking about the topic internally, money was made available.
When we reported this, UCD administrators said they thought the lights could be installed as early as Sept. 22's game against Northeastern. That still wouldn't have done anything about Saturday. My guess would be that UCD administrators didn't look into temporary lights for Saturday's game because they had permanent ones on the way. Again, that's my conjecture. As the poster said, this temperature issue is being discussed by our good friends at Aggiesportstalk.com, and you can read the full thread here.
Campus administrators will meet Tuesday to discuss what changes need to be made at the stadium. This is a long scheduled Monday Morning Quarterback session, to figure out how best to optimize the new facility. Probably, they'll spend most of the day talking about the heat. For the sake of argument, here, according to the National Weather Service, are the high temperatures in Sacramento for the last five Sept. 22's:
2006, 84 degrees
2005, 89 degrees
2004, 87 degrees
2003, 103 degrees
2002, 103 degrees
We'll clearly be following this as it develops.
3 comments:
Just as a point of interest for all, I checked on the cost of temp lights this morning. $16,000 for two 50 candle arrays, which according to the company and the NCAA is adequate lighting for a division 1 football stadium. oldaggie72
Mike, thank you for your research on this it is helpful and appreciated. You helped "turn the lights on" a bit.
Mike - this issue has now gone from bad to absurd. Warzecka's latest comments in the California Aggie just take the cake and show how incredibly out of touch he is with reality.
Are you planning any follow-up on the heat issue? Or the talked about ideas like showing the game in the ARC for people who want to get out of the heat? And why is the cost of lights this huge moving target??
And he keeps talking about how great the day was, how far we've come (from scrap of dirty to beautiful stadium). He says nothing about the tragedy and just hopes it fades away and he doesn't have to say anything more about it ever again.
The biggest issue: We have YET to get ANY kind of apology whatsoever from Warzecka or anyone at the university for that matter. The same kind of thing that is plaguing Barry Bonds' legacy is now happening to us. When will we learn?
If you could ask Warzecka ONE question, this is what I would like it to be: "Why have you not yet issued a public apology?"
It is a slap in the face to all those who donated to the stadium, to all those who attended the game, and to all those who care about the university and its athletic programs.
Thanks,
UC Davisite
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