A Guide on Stadium Light Cost – How Much Does It Cost to Buy Stadium Lighting Fixtures?

Lighting is an important part of a stadium. In addition to the cost of running stadium lighting, we may want to know the actual cost of purchasing stadium lighting. In fact, the total cost of purchasing stadium lighting can range from $35,000 to $250,000, depending on the type of stadium, and the lighting standards. This article will provide you with a general idea of stadium lighting prices and associated costs.

The stadium lights cost – how much does it cost to light a football stadium?

We can use 500 to 1500W LED lights as the main light source for stadiums. The typical price of stadium lights is about $0.50 to $2.0 per watt. For example, a 1000W LED stadium floodlight may cost around $500 to $2000, depending on the brand and manufacturing origin. However, we should avoid buying stadium lights that are particularly low priced, such as $0.1 to $0.3 per watt. This is because we can expect to get good quality lighting, as the cost of the power supply may already exceed this amount.

High school stadium lighting costs between $15,000 and $50,000, which means we need about 10,000 to 60,000 watts of LED lights to illuminate a high school’s athletic field. And stadium flood lighting costs for FIFA or Premier League can range from $120,000 to $280,000, depending on lighting requirements, pole height and a number of other factors. Please do not hesitate to contact our engineers for a free lighting quote.

How to estimate the cost of stadium lighting?

First, we need to estimate the wattage and number of LED lights needed to illuminate the high school soccer field in our photovoltaic simulation software. We can use this software to determine the best lighting design and arrangement for the photodome. For example, if the high school photo court has four 18 to 25 meter poles, we will need about 16 to 20 pieces of 1000W LED lights to get 250 to 350 lux. Since lighting requirements are not always strict, lighting costs are not as high as for a FIFA soccer field. If the high school has a total of 16 lights, each pole will have 4 lights.

How much does it cost to install stadium lights?

According to our research, the cost of stadium lighting installation can range from $25,000 to $75,000. Believe it or not, professional soccer stadium lighting installation costs will increase to around $50,000 to $240,000 depending on the stadium’s roof structure, the number of lights, the weight of the lights, the type of lights used, and other factors. Please feel free to contact one of our engineers for more information on stadium lighting costs and associated fees.

If the existing stadium light poles are in good condition, we can reuse them, so we don’t need to buy new poles and reconnect the cables under the stadium. In most cases, as long as we have a detailed stadium lighting design, we can use the existing poles to save on installation costs. Photometric studies are very important to ensure adequate lux and light uniformity in a soccer stadium.

How much does it cost to reinforce a stadium light pole?

You may ask – how come we need to reinforce the stadium light poles? This is because sometimes stadium light poles can only accommodate a specific number of stadium lighting fixtures. If the total weight of the lights exceeds the safety factor, the poles can crack and the lights can fall down during an exciting soccer game. This happens when we have to make modifications to the lighting in the stadium.

For example, one of our lights is about 15 kg, and we need to fix 40 lights on the poles, each pole should be able to withstand 600 kg.

Depending on the type of pole and the number of new stadium lights, the cost of retrofitting the poles can be between $5,000 and $30,000. Therefore, we need to choose LED lights with light weight to save the cost of light pole reinforcement.

LED replacement is a very good choice when retrofitting metal halide, mercury or other HID lamps because we can reduce the number of stadium lights used. For example, we can replace 150 HID lights with 40 to 60 LED lights with the same wattage or brightness.

How much does it cost to run the stadium lights?

It is also critical to calculate the operating cost of stadium flood lights as it is the long-term cost of stadium lights. For a simple estimate, we will calculate the operating cost per 10,000 watts of stadium lights.

Operating cost of stadium lights (per 10,000 watts) = 10,000W x $0.15/1000 x 1 hour = $1.50/hour, assuming $0.15/hour for electricity in the US. So if a high school stadium has 50,000 LED flood lights, the running cost becomes $0.15 x 5/hour = $0.75/hour, or $0.75 x 8 = $6 if we turn on the stadium lights for 8 hours a day. Or we can think of $6 x 20 days = $120 per month, or $120 x 12 = $1440 per year. Remember, we replace 125,000W of metal halide lights with 50,000W of LED lights, and the original cost of electricity for the metal halide stadium lights is $3,600 per year. So, in the long run, we can save a lot of money if we replace the HID lights with LED lights.

What is the maintenance cost of stadium lights?

The maintenance cost of LED stadium floodlights is literally zero. This is because our LED stadium lights have a lifespan of 120,000 to 150,000 hours, which equates to 50 years if we turn on all of our stadium lights for 8 hours a day. If there is no human damage to the stadium lights, we don’t need to maintain these lights for decades.

In contrast, halogen or halogen lamps can be very expensive to maintain, as we may need to replace all the lamps every 2 to 4 years. Due to their unique operating principle, gas discharge lamps do not have a long life span. After 15,000 to 30,000 hours of use, these centralized lighting fixtures can become very dim. Labor costs to maintain the high bar stadium lights will be as high as $300 to $1,000 per hour, depending on the amount of labor involved in the stadium light replacement project.

Thanks to the latest LED lighting technology, we can extend the life of our stadium lights by as much as 500% to 1000%, so we can save money on unnecessary stadium floodlight replacements.

We want you to have a better understanding of stadium lighting costs. If you would like to receive a free lighting design and project cost estimate, please feel free to contact us.