The lights at the ballpark won't shine for just baseball anymore. Eastern York High School has agreed to move the Golden Knights' home football game against York Catholic to Saturday night, Oct. 23 at Sovereign Bank Stadium.

It will be the first football game played at the home of minor league baseball's York Revolution.

"We'll have a chance to catch our breath after winning the championship this season before we move on to football," Revolution general manager Matt O'Brien joked.

The Revs groundscrew will remove the pitching mound at Sovereign Bank Stadium after the final baseball game (regular season ends Sept. 19). And a much larger crew will help move sod from Lancaster's Clipper Magazine Stadium and roll it in the infield cutouts at Sovereign Bank Stadium. Sod is normally removed from Lancaster after the season so the team can set up an outdoor ice skating rink, and York will use the extra turf to create an even playing surface that will run from the visitors' dugout to the large video board in right-center field.

"We learned a great deal from Lancaster when they reconfigured their field for (professional) soccer last season," Revs groundskeeper Brandon Putman said. "It's going to be a whole lot of work, but we'll have a couple weeks, whereas Lancaster had about three days to hold a soccer game (this summer)."

The event is an experiment for the Revolution, so Eastern will not be charged to lease the stadium.

"We don't know our

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(operating) cost, but the event was too good of an idea not to try it," Revolution general manager Matt O'Brien said. "We said whatever Eastern would have made on a typical home game, they will at least clear for this game -- and if the game grows larger it will help cover expenses."

O'Brien has predicted the biggest halftime show for a high school football game.

"We're used to scrambling to cram all the fun into a minute and a half between innings," O'Brien said. "Now we get 20 minutes."

Eastern York football has not reached the district playoffs since 1990, but the move should create some excitement for the program.

"I thought it was a great idea for the kids to be able to play in a great venue and receive some exposure," Eastern York head coach Jeff Shutter said.

jseip@ydr.com; 771-2025