Washington-Grizzly Stadium lights approved

The Montana Board of Regents approved the University of Montana's request to install lights in Washington-Grizzly Stadium in a meeting last week in Helena.

The lights will cost a total of $1 million, said Chuck Maes, UM's associate athletic director for internal operations.

Maes also said no student fees will be used to pay for any part of the lighting. The payment will be made from ticket sales, sponsorship revenue and NCAA and Big Sky Conference revenue.

Musco Sports Lighting will position eight light poles in the four corners of the stadium, as well as two on either side of the field positioned to line up with the 35-yard line.

In the past, Football Championship Subdivision playoff games that took place in Missoula had four portable light trucks brought in from Musco, courtesy of ESPN.

"These are more strategically placed, and way more energy efficient," Maes said. "They're directed and aimed in a manner that allows them to accomplish the same goal as those temporary lights, but with a lot less total amount of wattage."

Maes said the new lights will leave the smallest possible carbon footprint.

The energy-efficient lights are also in favor of the Big Sky Conference's new television contract with Root Sports. The contract states that Root Sports will broadcast at least 18 Big Sky Conference football games for the 2012 season. The two time slots Big Sky teams will play during next year will be 1:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.

"We're going to be able to go into 8.7 million homes now with our football games when we play here," Maes said. "So we're pretty excited for that."

A lit up Washington-Grizzly Stadium opens up the possibility for campus recreation events, high school championships, concerts, night games and late night practices for both the Grizzly football and soccer teams, according to the Board of Regents' project explanation.

However, the ability for teams to practice early in the morning or late at night was the driving force behind getting the lights put in, Maes said.

"It's a student welfare issue first and foremost," he said. "When we have 100-105 kids and we tell them you can't have a class between two o'clock and five o'clock because we have to have football practice, it works but it doesn't work. We have limited space and limited resources to get 300-plus athletes trained. The lights will allow us to do that."

In addition to stadium lights, the Montana Board of Regents also approved a $10,000 pay stipend for three Grizzly soccer coaches. First-year head coach Mark Plakorus will receive a $5,000 bonus, and assistants Sophie Clough and Lauren Robertson will each get $2,500.

The one-time performance bonus is the staff's reward for leading the Griz soccer team to its first Big Sky Conference Championship since 2000, said UM Senior Associate Athletic Director Jean Gee.

The bonus amount for the coaches was chosen because it is the same amount Lady Griz basketball coaches get for similar achievements.

"From an equity standpoint, I felt it was important that there be consistent incentive amounts across sports," Gee said.

On the field, Plakorus' squad finished with a 3-3-1 regular season conference record, and off the field it earned the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Team Academic Award for an overall team grade point average of 3.23 in the fall 2010 and spring 2011 semesters.

In postseason play last November, the Griz defeated top-seeded Northern Colorado and No. 3 Weber State, both on shootouts, to win the Big Sky and advance to the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament, where Stanford University defeated the Griz 3-0.

The Cardinal would go on to win the national championship.

dustin.askim@umontana.edu