How Many Lumens Do you Need to Light a Sports Field?
Nowadays, more and more people are doing sports at night in sports fields and stadiums, which is why we need to illuminate different kinds of sports fields. Whether we have a recreational or professional sports field, it is very important to illuminate it with enough lumens because the lights allow the sportsmen to see the components and the ball completely.
The question is, how many lumens do we need to illuminate a sports field such as a football field, cricket field, baseball field, basketball court, or tennis court? What are the minimum lumens needed for a sports field? This article will address these questions.
What is the lumen of sports stadium lighting?
Lumens are one of the most important measures of brightness and reflect the brightness of sports lighting. To give you a basic idea of what lumens are, we can think of 1 lumen as the brightness of a candle. We will use lumens to describe the light output of a stadium floodlight, which is like the horsepower of an engine.
What is the difference between lumens and lux
Some people may confuse lumens and lux because they are very similar in stadium lighting design. In fact, lux is a measurement of illuminance, which means the amount of light that hits the horizontal surface of a sports field, while lumen is a measurement of luminous flux, which is the total amount of visible light emitted from a light source.
We can imagine that lumens relate to emission, while lux relates to reception. Sports lighting that emits a specific amount of light does not mean that all of it will fall on the surface of a football field, cricket field, baseball diamond or other sports field.
If you place the lux meter close to the stadium lights, the lux value will increase. This is because the light will diverge and attenuate over distance.
How many lumens do you need for a football field and soccer field?
We need about 3 to 40 million lumens to light a football or soccer field, depending on the type of football field. If the stadium is designed for professional competition, then the stadium should have more than 10 million lumens of lighting.
| Type of football field | Football field and soccer field lighting lumen |
| Recreational football field | 2,200,000 to 3,000,000 lumens |
| Amateur competition or training soccer field | 4,000,000 to 8,000,000 lumens |
| High school football stadium | 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 lumens |
| Stadium for national & international 4K broadcasting | 22,500,000 to 40,000,000 lumens |
If you need more help with the lumens needed to light any sports field, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We offer a free lighting consultation.
How many lumens is cricket field lighting?
As cricket pitches and soccer pitches have different dimensions and lighting requirements, we can expect the lumens required to be very different. A typical cricket field has a diameter of about 135 to 155 meters, so we can initially calculate the number of lumens required for a cricket field.
| Type of cricket field | Lumens for cricket field |
| Class I (International cricket matches) | 15,000,000 to 30,000,000 lumens |
| Class II (High school or regional competitions) | 7,500,000 to 12,000,000 lumens |
| Class III (Amateur or recreational cricket ground) | 2,500,000 to 6,000,000 lumens |
| Indoor cricket practice net | 2,000,000 to 4,500,000 lumens |
We expect the lumens to be a little lower for indoor cricket pitches because we don’t need intense lighting for training. Believe it or not, we need up to 30 million lumens of cricket field lighting for international cricket matches like ICC.
How many lumens do I need to light up a baseball field?
A typical baseball field has a radius of 80 to 120 meters (260 to 400 ft), so we can calculate the corresponding lumens we need.
| Type of baseball field | Baseball field lighting lumens |
| Recreational baseball diamond | 800,000 to 2,500,000 lumens |
| Baseball field for high school or regional competitions | 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 lumens |
| Professional baseball stadium | 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 lumens |
This is just a basic reference of the lumens needed to light a baseball field. If the baseball field is larger, the lumens required will increase significantly. Please feel free to contact us for more information and a free lighting design.
What is the lumen of the tennis court lighting?
Tennis is another very common sport that many people tend to play at night. Because tennis courts are much smaller than soccer or cricket fields, the lumens required for tennis court lighting are much smaller.
| Type of tennis court | How many lumens does a tennis court need? |
| Class I (Professional, international tournaments) | 500,000 to 1,200,000 lumens |
| Class II (Regional competition) | 400,000 to 800,000 lumens |
| Class III (Amateur or training) | 110,000 to 250,000 lumens |
We can see common tennis court lighting lumens ranging from 110,000 to 1,200,000 lumens. Sometimes we need to use up to 1000 watts to 1500 watts of LEDs on a tennis court to provide enough lumens for a primary tennis court. In order to have a good lighting, we need to be very specific about the height of the light poles and the distance between them to create an even and bright lighting design. Contact us for a free tennis court lighting design and we will help you estimate number of tennis court lighting needed and its wattage.
How many lumens of basketball court lighting do we need?
Similar to tennis courts, basketball courts are relatively small, so we don’t need billions of lumens to light up the court, unless we light up an NBA basketball court.
| Type of basketball court | Basketball court lighting lumen required |
| Amateur level or recreational basketball court | 150,000 to 250,000 lumens |
| Domestic basketball competition | 300,000 to 500,000 lumens |
| Professional level (TV broadcasting, NBA, etc) | 650,000 to 2,000,000 lumens |
The lumens required for basketball court lighting are fairly easy to understand. For recreational basketball court lighting, we only need 150,000 to 250,000 lumens, which is a relatively small value. However, when it comes to NBA lighting, we need up to 2,000,000 lumens. We need intense, uniform, anti-glare and flicker-free lighting.
How many lumens does it take to light a volleyball court?
In our experience, we need about 15,000 lumens to 200,000 lumens to illuminate a volleyball or beach volleyball court, depending on the level of competition.
| Type of volleyball court | What are the lumens for volleyball court lighting? |
| Recreational, community beach volleyball court | 15,000 to 40,000 lumens |
| Volleyball court for regional competition | 46,000 to 80,000 lumens |
| Professional | 120,000 to 200,000 lumens |
Like other ball sports, we need enough lumens to illuminate the volleyball court so that players can see the fast-moving volleyball. Shadow-free lighting is also important in volleyball because the lights should not create dim areas that interfere with vision. We can easily reduce shadows by using a 4 or 6 pole volleyball court lighting design.
How many lumens does it take to light up a field hockey rink and ice rink?
Field hockey rinks and ice rink have now become a popular sport, with more and more people playing this exciting sport indoors or outdoors. LED lights are a great light source because they have high enough lumens, but don’t produce a lot of heat to melt the ice. We need about 250 lux to 750 lux to illuminate a field hockey rink, which equates to 400,000 lumens to 1,200,000 lumens.
| Type of hockey rink or ice rink | Hockey rink lumens needed |
| High-level or professional hockey competition | 900,000 to 1,200,000 lumens |
| Mid-level or regional competition | 500,000 to 700,000 lumens |
| Recreational ice rink or field hockey rink | 400,000 to 600,000 lumens |
How many lumens does a badminton court need?
Badminton is another popular and exciting sport today. In order to light up a badminton court, we need about 25,000 lumens to 150,000 lumens. Badminton is usually played indoors, especially in professional tournaments, because the wind can easily change the trajectory of a badminton game.
Instead of floodlights for badminton courts, we need indoor high bay lights to illuminate the badminton court. Of course, we need to maintain enough lumens to illuminate the badminton court so that players and spectators can see the fast-moving badminton.
| Type of badminton court | Badminton court lighting lumens (per court) |
| Professional badminton court or stadium | 100,000 to 150,000 lumens |
| Mid-level badminton competition | 60,000 to 90,000 lumens |
| Recreational or amateur badminton hall | 25,000 to 45,000 lumens |
Please feel free to contact us if you need any advice on lighting for your sports field. We offer a free lighting consultation and design service.