Here’s How They Change The Lightbulbs at Davenport’s Brady Street Stadium
It feels like every high school kid remembers one specific football game they were at - whether on the field or in the stands - where it was a brisk evening, the lights were on, and the home team was winning.
Those giant floodlights are the only reason that teams can play once the sun goes down, and they're so bright they not only light the field, but you can typically see where the stadium is from just about anywhere in town.
Eventually, those lights will burn out just like the one in your kitchen, and somebody has to replace them.
Today, there was a crew from Tri-City Electric changing bulbs out of those big towers at Brady Street Stadium in Davenport.
It turns out, they don't climb up a crazy tall ladder to change out the burnt-out bulbs, but they use a crane.
It takes a crane with a guy in a man basket to be able to get high enough to reach the bulbs.
Those HID (High Intensity Discharge) lightbulbs are a little bigger than the size of a grown man's forearm, and they're no joke.
These bulbs put out somewhere in the ballpark of 15,000 lumens per bulb.
Using the crane, it's an all-day project, and they don't replace every bulb in the stadium. The bulbs cost around $100 a piece, there's 16 bulbs in one tower, and there are six towers at Brady Street Stadium.
That's about $9600 worth of just light bulbs.
The crew is called to replace the bulbs that have burnt out once a year, and it's a job that requires a full crew - a crane operator, a guy for the basket, and someone to watch for traffic.