The Purdue Athletics department has started a crowdfunding campaign in order to do their part to lessen their environmental impact. Purdue’s “Lights Out Campaign” is situated towards converting Mackey Arena, where their basketball team plays, to an all-LED stadium. Doing so will allow Mackey Arena to waste less energy and have a generally more exciting atmosphere.
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
At the moment, the crowdfunding campaign has around $21,000 in donations, and the aim for the entire movement is $100,000. While Purdue is hoping to close up their round of funding by the end of March, there are still no definite plans on when fans can expect to see the stadium lit up by LED.
In addition to the actual arena becoming lit by LED lights, Purdue is putting the $100,000 towards a new video board. It will be twice the size and resolution of their current video board, and also backed by 6mm LED technology.
This new board will operate in tandem with a new ribbon board that will circle the top of Mackey Arena, also crafted with LED lights.
Going to crowdfunding for financial support is a unique move for a collegiate athletic department. This experiment will be interesting to watch, and if it succeeds, it will be a new tool for colleges to raise money for their teams and facilities. This way, alumni and fans will actually know the direction that their donations are headed, instead of donating vaguely to “athletics.”
It also gets fans more involved than typical ways of giving money, creating an online, social aspect to giving. It wouldn’t be surprising if this is a trend we start to see more college athletic programs adopting.