Printer-friendly

May 13, 2007

Green is a Go for the Reds

Initiatives at the Great American Ballpark

by Will Weiss

The Cincinnati Reds claim many firsts in baseball annals. The Reds are recognized as baseball’s first all-professional team, and they were founding members of the American Association and later the National League. They’re the first MLB team to have staged night games, and they are the first team to have had a pitcher throw consecutive no-hitters, with Johnny Vander Meer accomplishing the feat in 1938. The second of Vander Meer’s no-hitters occurred during another first: the first night game ever played at Ebbets Field.

Nearly 70 years later, the Reds are striving to become the first team to be fully green in its ballpark operations. The organization considers itself as a steward of the Cincinnati community, and has considered green measures and put them into practice ever since Great American Ballpark opened in 2003, largely due to the foresight of Declan Mullin, the team’s vice president of ballpark operations. Prior to assuming his post in Cincinnati, Mullin worked for Spectacor Management Group, where one of his primary responsibilities was performing energy audits and making suggestions to help SMG’s arena operators run their facilities more efficiently.

At Great American Ballpark, high-efficiency lighting illuminates all parts of the stadium, from the structures that light the field to the internal office areas. In addition, a computerized motherboard regulates the ballpark’s lighting system. At various points during a game, the unit will recognize areas in greatest need of either heating or cooling (luxury boxes, team clubhouses), and transfer power to that area from an area of the stadium that doesn’t exhaust as much power. During postgame cleanup, stadium lights are programmed to shut off on a timed basis, contingent upon the area of the stadium that is active.