Michigan Stadium without power prior to Nebraska game
At least it's not a night game.
Roughly 90 minutes prior to kickoff for the Michigan football team's home game with Nebraska on Saturday, Michigan Stadium suffered a partial power outage, leaving the scoreboards blank and the public address system silent.
The game, Nebraska's first trip to Ann Arbor since 1962, is scheduled to begin at 12:01 p.m.
Michigan had scheduled several pregame festivities prior to kick.
To honor all current and former veterans, Michigan had scheduled an American flag "card stunt" during the playing of the national anthem. In addition, four F-18 planes were scheduled to fly over the stadium.
Former Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr was also slated to be honored Saturday for his election into the College Football Hall of Fame.
As of 11:20 a.m., power had not returned to the stadium press box. However, the north endzone scoreboard had begun to flicker and music started playing over the public address system.
Nick Baumgardner covers Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2514, by email at nickbaumgardner@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @nickbaumgardner.
Comments
Salinemary
Sat, Nov 19, 2011 : 10:11 p.m.
Anyone know an electrician?
Tru2Blu76
Sat, Nov 19, 2011 : 4:38 p.m.
Unbelievable! A quarter billion dollar renovation - electric system left in the last century!
Long Time No See
Mon, Nov 21, 2011 : 5:44 a.m.
I agree with Tru2Blu76 A very basic business continuity planning process should have identified at least the PA and scoreboard systems as being critical, and backup power systems should have been in place for them (there's a reason that ESPN was able to broadcast - according to quotes I saw online during the game, they have backup power for their critical systems). It's not just a PR problem, it's a significant safety issue if the PA system isn't working during an emergency. For those systems to fail for *any* reason during an event at the stadium seems to demonstrate some very poor planning on the part of the athletic department. Chris's statement unintentionally supports Tru2Blu76's statement. Planning for power outages is a very basic part of business continuity planning because the power *does* go out (uh huh!). There are things that can be done to prevent interruptions in critical services during power outages, and the athletic department apparently failed to do those things in order to properly prepare for power outages.
Chris
Sat, Nov 19, 2011 : 4:45 p.m.
Right, because the power never goes out..uh huh.