North Carolina State Wolfpack players take the field prior to a game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Carter-Finley Stadium. Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: NC State scoreboard nearly struck by lightning

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated 9/9/23

Saturday’s game between Notre Dame and NC State involved a lengthy weather delay due to lightning, and that turned out to be bad news for the school’s brand-new scoreboard.

Carter-Finley Stadium debuted a new video board Saturday after an offseason upgrade, but few got the chance to see much of it. Bad weather forced a delay in the second quarter, with lightning strikes observed in the area. One of them apparently got too close to the new scoreboard, with multiple reporters on the scene saying the board was struck by lightning, leading to some serious technical issues.

NC State’s brand new scoreboard got struck by lightning and shorted out pic.twitter.com/9xZ7WN9r42

— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) September 9, 2023

A lightning strike just momentarily put NC State’s brand new video board out pic.twitter.com/DaYfrC4te2

— Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) September 9, 2023

NC State claimed that the video board had not been directly struck by lightning, but some panels shorted out due to the bad weather.

According to NC State Athletics, the new video board was not hit by lightning. It is currently having trouble because panels shorted due to weather. There’s no smoke or (visible) damage to it indicative of a strike. Crews can’t fix now for safety reasons until the delay is over. https://t.co/mWFNGNSn1c

— Chris Lea – WRAL-TV (@ChrisLeaTV) September 9, 2023

The damage does not sound permanent, but it’s surely not what NC State would have wanted to deal with on what was supposed to be a big day for them. Hopefully, the technical issues are resolved quickly, and the bad weather doesn’t have other significant impacts on the game.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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