If you build it, they will come.
At least for a while.
In August, the Ball State University football team held its first ever weeknight home game at the stadium. A private donor paid for temporary lights, and the Thursday night affair brought 23,549 people -- a record by far.
Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham was so impressed with the turnout that he has issued a new decree across the land: Ball State will add spend about $300,000 to install permanent lights by the home opener in 2004.
The question is whether an athletics program that faces a money crunch will really be served by the lights.
Based on the success of the August experiment, Cunningham assumes the lights will help improve attendance numbers that are only slightly more woeful on a yearly basis than the team's record.
He might want to check with other Mid-American Conference schools before spending all that money, though.
At Western Michigan University, permanent lights are a decent investment. The Broncos shed light on their field for the first time in 1993. Since then, night games have produced the five largest crowds in the school's history.
The administration shouldn't discount the fact, however, that WMU had a string of good years in the late '90s. In 1999, a year the Broncos won eight games, they averaged 26,874 fans per contest.
Western lost eight games last year, and the average attendance was closer to 20,000 per contest.
Bowling Green State University came out of the dark in the 2001 campaign. The first night game brought the sixth-highest turnout in Falcon history, but no other night games have made the top 15.
The BGSU media guide boasts that, "permanent lights helped BGSU double its home attendance in 2001," but the guide overlooked one fact: the team went from 2-9 in 2001 to 8-3 in 2002. Bowling Green's athletic department can't credit light bulbs for victories.
Kent State University, a school that added lights in 1996, has seen a similar pattern. Its record hasn't improved much. Neither has its attendance.
These numbers show that the novelty of night games will eventually wear off for fans, especially if the team can't win.
Advocates of lights would argue that to improve a football team on the Division I level, the athletics department must begin by improving the facilities. A good athletic complex has the potential to bring better recruits, they say.
But do all football powerhouses have lights?
Well, Michigan doesn't. Purdue doesn't, and Notre Dame had already established itself as a powerhouse before adding light in 1996.
In a < I>DAILY NEWS< I> report, Cunningham said fund-raising efforts for the lights would begin immediately.
Once that money is raised, though, the administration needs to reconsider where it goes.
Here's an idea: hold back that cash and save it for the next time a minor sport needs to be cut.
Write to Jay at jdkenworthy@bsu.edu
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