A stadium with a center of 300 lux and only 80 lux on the four corners is worse than a stadium with an average of 200 lux on the entire court. What athletes and cameras really care about is not the average illumination, but the difference in illumination on the venue.

There is a proper name for this difference: uniformity, which is expressed as the ratio of the minimum illumination to the average illumination, and is usually written Uo. The target Uo for general recreational courses is 0.4 - 0.5, while higher-level competition and broadcast venues must be pushed above 0.6. European sports lighting classification is specified by EN 12193, and which level applies depends on the level of the competition rather than the size of the venue. Please lock on the target level first, and then reverse how many lights are needed and which light distribution can be used to achieve it.

Lamp pole layout is the other half of the problem. The four-corner layout performs good on the uniformity of a rectangular court, but the glare will concentrate towards the center of the court; the two-side layout will have less glare on the auditorium, but more light poles are needed to achieve the same uniformity. How to choose depends on what is around the stadium and where the viewing position is.

Finally, plan spillover light and maintenance accessibility together. Light that crosses the border and enters the neighborhood is a common source of complaints; and a lamp that requires a crane to maintain will actually be maintained much less frequently than a lamp that is specially designed for maintenance.