At the US Open, tennis stars shine under dark sky-friendly outdoor lights

When the court docket lights flicker on on the U.S. Open, tennis stars shine beneath illumination designed to chop gentle air pollution.

The wedge-shaped lamps across the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle in Flushing Meadows direct gentle onto the gamers with out spewing it into the encircling skies.

The stadium advanced is the one skilled sports activities venue licensed by a gaggle that is attempting to protect the evening sky around the globe. Throughout North America and Canada, colleges and native parks have additionally swapped out their lights on baseball fields, operating tracks and different recreation grounds to protect their view of the celebrities and defend native wildlife.

Evening lights can disrupt chook migration and confuse nocturnal critters like frogs and fireflies. Lights on sports activities fields are particularly vibrant and funky, and sometimes forged their glare into neighborhoods.

In renovations over the previous decade, the U.S. Tennis Affiliation swapped steel halide bulbs for shielded LED lights. The advanced’s 17 match courts—together with Arthur Ashe Stadium—and 5 follow courts had been accepted as darkish sky-friendly final 12 months.

USTA officers wished the most effective lighting potential on their courts, which additionally occurred to be pleasant to darkish skies. Their lighting firm urged placing a stability that might fulfill crowds and TV crews whereas slicing down spillover into the encircling setting.

“That is a world occasion that has an impression on the group,” stated the USTA’s managing director of capital initiatives and engineering Chuck Jettmar. “Let’s decrease that and guarantee that all people’s pleased with it.”

Designing lights for darkish skies

U.S. Open qualifying matches this week had been punctuated by gamers grunting, crickets chirping and audiences cheering. Rows of lights stood like sentries above, adorned with flat visors that guided the glow onto the motion.

The lights at Flushing Meadows glow at 1 / 4 of their brightness when the courts are rented for play in the course of the 12 months. They’re accepted by DarkSky Worldwide, a nonprofit that offers related designations to cities and nationwide parks. The group widened its focus to incorporate sports activities arenas lately and has licensed over 30 venues since 2019—together with highschool soccer fields and youth soccer fields.

“We dwell in a world the place we have to interact with each other within the nighttime setting, and that is OK,” stated DarkSky spokesperson Drew Reagan. “That is an attractive factor and there is a means to try this responsibly.”

The group usually approves proposals at sports activities fields earlier than any lighting fixtures are put in or changed. As soon as building is full, a consultant measures the glow and glare in opposition to a set of pointers that profit the evening.

Renovating a area with darkish skies in thoughts can value about 5% to 10% greater than conventional sports activities lighting, in response to James Brigagliano, who runs DarkSky’s out of doors sports activities lighting program. Venues might require just a few further fixtures because the gentle shining from them is extra focused.

Most arenas make the change throughout scheduled upkeep and renovation, working with sports activities lighting firm Musco. The corporate lights over 3,000 venues a 12 months together with faculty soccer stadiums, tennis courts and rail yards.

At Superstition Shadows Park in Apache Junction, Arizona, children play T-ball and baseball within the evenings, when the darkness presents a short respite from the summer season warmth. The town’s parks and recreation division changed its already-aging lights with shielded, darkish sky-friendly fixtures final 12 months with federal and native authorities funding.

Individuals enterprise to Apache Junction partly as a result of “they’ll get out of the town and nonetheless see stars,” stated the town’s parks and recreation director Liz Langenbach. The town is on the fringe of the Phoenix metro space, bordered by rolling mountains and sweeping deserts.

“The alternatives we make on lighting, I believe, have an effect on all of that,” Langenbach stated.

At Université Sainte-Anne in Canada, college students run on a brand new monitor and soccer area outfitted with lights that DarkSky accepted final 12 months. Researchers on the college examine native, nocturnal animals just like the northern saw-whet owl.

The lights are “good for everybody,” stated college spokesperson Rachelle LeBlanc. “For tourism, for our college students, for our neighbors, for the animals that we share our campus with.”

Find out how to reduce gentle air pollution

Evening lights hurt the encircling setting irrespective of how shielded they’re. DarkSky-approved fields nonetheless enable a small fraction of their gentle to be pointed up since it is necessary to maintain monitor of flying balls.

“You may have the very best, most rigorously designed stadium lighting on this planet, and you are still creating gentle air pollution,” stated Travis Longcore, an city gentle air pollution professional on the College of California, Los Angeles.

The U.S. Open courts are side-by-side with vibrant lights from Manhattan and Queens—to allow them to solely darken a slice of the sky. However DarkSky says each gentle fixture makes a distinction, and one skilled enviornment can affect others.

“I am not saying we as people have to show all of the lights off,” stated Longcore. “I believe you must make enhancements from the place you’re.”

© 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.