Challenge

Managing game-day operations for Big 12 college football games is a big deal. Sorting logistics for game officials, visiting teams, TV crews and event staffers requires communication and coordination.

If dangerous weather appears, it’s even more crucial for officials and staff to have an efficient, trustworthy weather system to help communicate safety messages.

For Sassan Sahba, Associate Athletics Director for Facilities and Game Day Management at Texas Christian University (TCU), reliability and ease of use were key factors when choosing a new weather safety platform.

With multiple people needing to use the system for sports during the year, TCU needed a system that could be quickly learned and adapted.

“We rely so heavily on a system – it needs to be quick, reliable, and easy to navigate,” says Sahba.

Solution

Perry Weather’s combination of outdoor weather stations and an intuitive, easy-to-use web dashboard and app gave TCU the weather system they wanted, one that could be quickly adapted and used by multiple people, from staffers to visiting officials.

“From a game day perspective, it’s been great,” he says.

Not only can Perry Weather track nearby lightning strikes and let officials know when it’s safe to resume play during big games, it’s easy for anyone to use during midweek practices far from the bright TV lights.

“For our coaches and sports medicine staff, I’m not there every day during practice. And if there’s lightning at a soccer practice, at a baseball practice, that’s where the user-friendly stuff comes into play,” he says.

“They can literally pull up their app and it tells them, this is how much time you have before the all-clear.”

Sahba has also been using Perry Weather’s Ask a Meteorologist feature, to check on weather forecasts and plan ahead.

“The consultation has been really easy,” he says. “They’ll answer right away.”

Results

Since implementing Perry Weather, TCU has been able to roll the platform out to coaches, trainers and the athletic staff. They’re able to more accurately plan for potential weather, and react accordingly. And they now have access to more accurate information about when and where lighting is striking.

“Being able to have multiple users has been awesome,” Sahba says.

“On game day, officials can see what I see instead of relying on me to call or text them – they know when the all-clear is. From a game day perspective, that’s been great.”
– Sassan Sahba, Associate Athletics Director for Facilities and Game Day Management, TCU