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Brandon talks night-game challenges

Athletic director says safety and security around stadium are top priority

Updated: September 6, 2011, 5:52 PM ET
By Michael Rothstein | WolverineNation
In an exclusive interview with WolverineNation, athletic director Dave Brandon talked in great depth about "Under the Lights," Michigan's night game against Notre Dame this Saturday. He expects the largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history, possilby as many as 115,000.

Q: What's been the biggest challenge in putting the night game together from a neighborhood standpoint, from an enforcement/policing standpoint, from a fan standpoint?

DB: "The biggest challenge is just convincing people we truly don't have any tickets left. We have people who are very, very upset because they can't believe that in a stadium so big, there aren't any tickets left. We're going to find out what the true capacity of Michigan Sta-dium is in its current form at that game because never before has there been a situation where there is so much more demand than there is supply. Truthfully, that has been the big-gest heartache. We've had a lot of moving parts. We had to install lights. We had to work this through the networks and partnered with Notre Dame. We had the legacy uniforms, which was work and effort getting them right and getting them all ready to go. We're going to honor Desmond Howard and that's going to turn into a pretty big thing. We've got the new score-board to activate at night. We're doing some special things with the band. So there's a lot of marketing and programming stuff that's going on.

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Michael Rothstein | email

Reporter, WolverineNation
  • Reporter for WolverineNation
  • Covers Michigan Wolverines sports
  • Joined ESPN in 2011

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