Case Study: Maryland SoccerPlex achieves enhanced athlete and spectator safety with Earth Networks' lightning and severe weather alerting system

Maryland soccerplex relies on lightning and severe weather alerting system to keep athletes safe

The Maryland SoccerPlex, a 160‑acre athletic complex with more than 20 fields that welcomes roughly 650,000 players and spectators a year, faced a critical safety challenge: lightning and severe weather could strike suddenly across distant fields while limited staff struggled to warn visitors. To replace an unreliable system that forced officials to drive from field to field, the SoccerPlex turned to Earth Networks for a robust lightning and severe weather alerting solution.

Earth Networks installed a turnkey suite—on‑site weather station and lightning sensor tied to the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network, outdoor high‑decibel horns (automatic at 10 miles), indoor beacons (15‑mile activation), a web‑based weather visualization app, LCD displays and mobile alerts—giving staff automated, facility‑wide warnings. The system reliably detected in‑cloud and cloud‑to‑ground strikes, triggered audible alerts during events such as Hurricane Irene and Labor Day storms, eliminated the need for manual field checks, and provided advanced notice so operations could protect players and manage field conditions for hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Maryland SoccerPlex

Trish Heffelfinger

Executive Director