Musco Lighting - Super Bowl XXXV

Shedding light on Super Bowl XXXV
and NFL Experience
Raymond James Stadium • Tampa, Florida

Musco lighting systems helped bring the television broadcast of Super Bowl XXXV, played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, to millions of viewers.

NFL games mean bone-crushing hits and big-time plays by some of the best athletes in the world. The Super Bowl has become more than just the culmination of the NFL season. It is now a flurry of week-long activities, television specials and extravagant pregame and halftime shows.

This year’s NFL Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. was a Musco Lighting tour de force: both the Super Bowl game and the NFL Experience, a temporary football theme park, were lighted by Musco.

Inside Raymond James Stadium, Musco had teamed with ME Engineering in 1998 to install permanent lighting. The 624 fixtures produce over one million watts of lighting power on the field, with light levels sufficient to broadcast the greatest football game played. The fixtures include Musco’s Level-8™ light control option, for pinpoint accuracy of lighting and superior spill light and glare control. The fixtures are mounted on elevated platforms that provide a pleasing, continuous band of light.

Bringing that excitement and action to families across the country, the 10th annual NFL Experience roared into Tampa to celebrate the National Football League prior to the Super Bowl. Over one million fans have thrilled to this up-close, football-in-your-face experience since its debut at Super Bowl XXVI in Minneapolis, offering an exciting theme park of interactive games, displays and attractions.

A variety of lighting solutions were used for the NFL Experience, a temporary theme park featuring interactive games, displays and attractions. Broadcast-level lighting was needed for several televised shows held throughout the event, including ESPN’s Lineman Competition.

For the sixth year, Musco was again called on to light the NFL Experience with temporary lighting services. Called a “football Disney World™,” the 20-acre exposition included an outdoor area to test skills, as well as the Footlocker™ Tent and the Card Show Tent. Coaching and playing clinics held daily allowed visitors to learn basic skills. The outdoor area provides a “punt, pass, kick”-type competition for adults and children. Think you could have hit that game-winning field goal? Try it here. Are you the next great NFL quarterback? Throw the ball into Lynn Swann’s (cutout) hands.

To meet the lighting needs of the NFL Experience, Greg Gilley, Musco project manager, and his crew used a combination of temporary lighting equipment to handle the diverse lighting requirements. Musco LightBars™ and TempLight™ Systems were used for general lighting, television field lighting, Footlocker and Card Show tents.

To properly light the Card Show Tent (over 49,000 square feet) Gilley used Musco Gym Pak™ Systems combined with Musco Light-Bars™ using Total Light Control™ visors. Says Greg, “This specialized technology allowed us to make sure that there was consistent lighting throughout the tent for all of the vendor’s booths.”

For ESPN’s telecast of the Lineman Challenge, featuring NFL linemen competing in a series of skills competitions, Musco lit a simulated, full-size football field with fully automatic TempLight Systems.

“Part of the advantage of using Musco is the experience they bring with them,” said Rick Mooney, production manager of Party Planners West. “Greg Gilley has been working with the NFL Experience for several years and understands our needs and wants so much so that he’s able to anticipate our design needs — before he actually shows up on site.”

All proceeds from ticket sales to the NFL Experience went to the National Football League’s charitable activities. •

Musco’s presence surrounded Super Bowl XXXV, including permanent lighting solutions for the game and temporary services outside the stadium.