You may thank ESPN for the everlasting lights that at the moment are at Michigan Stadium.
Former Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon appeared on Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s podcast this week. Brandon revealed that Michigan’s everlasting lighting venture on the soccer stadium was paid for by ESPN. Why? As a result of ESPN wished to televise Michigan night time video games.
“We’d play these afternoon video games and herald these transportable lights and there’s these shadows on the sphere,” Brandon mentioned on the Assault Every Day podcast. “I really bought ESPN to pay for it. Didn’t value us a dime. All we needed to do was promise to play an evening recreation yearly.”
Michigan put in everlasting lights at its soccer stadium in 2010 forward of an outside hockey recreation that was performed between Michigan and Michigan State and the primary house soccer recreation at night time was in opposition to Notre Dame in 2011.
The college assertion on the time mentioned “the full value of the venture is $1.eight million. Funding will likely be offered from Athletic Division sources.”
These sources had been confirmed to be ESPN by a spokesperson for the college to MLive.com on Tuesday. And may you blame ESPN for paying for the deal? Paying lower than $2 million for lights at Michigan Stadium in change for a primetime Michigan soccer house recreation yearly for the foreseeable future on an ESPN community is a superb commerce.
Brandon, the chairman of Domino’s Pizza, was Michigan’s athletic director from 2010 to 2014. He resigned in October of 2014 following the college’s poor dealing with of quarterback Shane Morris’ head harm in a recreation in opposition to Minnesota. That recreation helped result in the demise of the Brady Hoke period on the college and Harbaugh was employed to succeed Hoke.