THE WASHINGTON TIMES December 21, 2006 By Tim Lemke

Exploding Scoreboards
            Some stadium operators have turned to larger displays as a way of consolidating all of a game's information onto one board rather than have separate screens for different content.
"Traditionally, you used to see video replays on a separate board from scores and statistics," Foster said. "Now it's all integrated into a single system."
          While teams are spending millions of dollars on these displays, they expect to earn that money back in increased advertising opportunities. The new displays are usually constructed to allow for advertising signs on the perimeter -- fans at Texas have derided the "Godzillatron" for its excessive signage -- and the higher quality of the video can allow teams to sell full-fledged commercials.
          "It's big because now you can get creative and deliver a more important message," said Dan Kosth, CEO of Sports Media, a Silvis, Ill., company that helps plan stadium advertising, including campaigns for large video displays. "Entertainment is more important to advertisers because they don't want it to be where advertising is in your face. The days of static signage are fading away."
          The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, which is in charge of building a new stadium for the Washington Nationals, is soliciting bids for a video screen and scoreboard at the ballpark, which is scheduled to open in 2008. The LED video screen would measure 29 feet in height and 51 feet in width, making it one of the larger screens in baseball but still dwarfed by the 71-foot-tall by 79-foot-wide screen at Turner Field. The stadium architectural team, led by HOK Sport of Kansas City, Mo., has designed the ballpark to accommodate a larger screen if the club requests it in the future.
          The Baltimore Orioles, meanwhile, succeeded earlier this month in blocking the Maryland Stadium Authority's purchase of a new scoreboard for Camden Yards and have asked the authority to install something larger and more technologically advanced. The two sides are preparing to enter binding arbitration to end the dispute.
          Manufacturers and architects said baseball stadiums may not be able to accommodate screens much larger than those currently being produced, especially since some new parks, such as the Oakland Athletics' proposed stadium, are designed to seat less than 40,000.
"There is a practical limit to how large they can get, and I think we've pretty much reached that," said Clark Mleynek of HOK Sport.
          But football stadiums, which are growing larger in size, will likely be home to bigger and brighter displays.
          "You just never know how big things are going to be," Daktronics' Parker said. "The stadium operators are going to do anything that would improve fan experience, and I really think they're going to try and raise that bar."