Let there be light.

Cyclone football fans will notice a few major renovations when they attend the games this fall, including a $500,000 lighting improvement project, Athletic Director Bruce Van De Velde said Friday.

“They’re already starting to work on the reinforcement of the stadium and the infrastructure to hold the lights,” he said.

The project, which will be funded in part by the reorganization of student seating for basketball games, will be completed early in August at the latest, Van De Velde said.

Dean Morton, university architect, said the athletic department approached him with the idea about three months ago. He said on the east side there will be three racks of lights along the top of the stadium: one at each end and one in the middle. The west side will be similar, with the middle rack being placed on top of the press box.

“Everything’s going to be ready for the first football game on August 31st,” Morton said.

Previously, the athletic department had to pay $60,000 per non-televised night game to set up and operate temporary lighting at Jack Trice Stadium.

Having no permanent lighting made Iowa State less attractive to television as well, Van De Velde said. Colorado is the only other school in the Big 12 Conference without permanent lighting.

“It was becoming a detrimental factor for us being picked for television,” Van De Velde said. “We think we’ll sell more tickets, especially with the students, with night games. That’s what it’s shown over the years.”

Cyclone fans will see a clearer image when they look to the scoreboard as well.

A brand new scoreboard, featuring a crystal clear video board, will grace the south end zone in place of the current one.

“They’re going to start coming in the latter part of next week and disassembling the current one,” Van De Velde said. “It’s pretty dated; it’s been patched together.”

Van De Velde said a couple times last year he wasn’t sure if the scoreboard was going to hold up for the rest of the season.

“This one will be retired,” Van De Velde said, chuckling. “We’re going to be putting in a brand new, state-of-the-art video board. It will definitely add to the quality of the atmosphere.”

The athletic department will borrow money to pay for the $1 million scoreboard. The advertisements on the board will help pay off the loan.

“We’re going to use revenue off the marketing and sponsorship to fund the board,” he said.

The money brought in will be more than the payment requirements for the loan, allowing some money to be put in reserve for other expenses.

“It’s a revenue stream that we haven’t had before,” Van De Velde said. “It not only adds the quality of the event . it also generates resources from it. It’s another good investment.”

Van De Velde also said 3,000 new permanent seats will be added in south end zone with the purchase of new bleachers. The price tag for that is $500,000 but makes sense in the long run because renting those bleachers had been costing Iowa State $90,000 per year.

Along with the new parking lots being constructed to the east of Jack Trice, the new lights, scoreboard and seating form a better the atmosphere for football, Van De Velde said.

Morton, whose office also heads the plans for the new parking lot and new bleachers, said there are many advantages to the new bleachers.

“This is a scaled down version of what was talked about a year ago,” said Morton, referring to talks of filling in the south end of Jack Trice. “My guess is that it is an interim solution. This is really a smart, cost-effective way to get some more seats.”

There had been talk for enclosing the south end zone with permanent stadium seating, turning Jack Trice into a U-shaped stadium, but Van De Velde said the plans have been shelved for now.

“When we can sell 40,000 season tickets, we’ll bowl it in,” Van De Velde said. “Until then I can’t see us doing that. We have the potential to do that . but right now we’re only selling about 22,000 season tickets, and that includes students.”

“It’s all based on the success and how much our alumni and friends want to get behind the program,” he said.