Football
Up-to-the-Minute Lighting and Scoreboard Coming to Ohio Stadium
By John PorentasOhio Stadium will be brighter place this fall thanks to a 3 million dollar investment being made by IMG, OSU's partner for marketing and ad revenue.
The Cleveland-based company is footing the entire bill for the installation of two LED ribbon boards which will cover 340 of the stadium fascia on both the east and west sides of the stadium. Additionally, the stadium will get a new 17 foot by 44 foot LED scoreboard at the north end of the stadium. That unit will be capable of showing game statistics, replays and advertising.
The new installations will require moving some existing items. All of the retired number jerseys will have to be relocated in order to accommodate the upgrades as will the OSU tribute to the record of Woody Hayes. OSU Department of Athletics Associate AD for Facilities Operations Don Patko outline what will happen with the jerseys.
"The jerseys will be hung on the west side of the new north scoreboard," said Patko.
"To balance that, we will be putting up a tribute to all the national championship years on the east side of the scoreboard.
"All of that will be in back-lit cabinets.
"In a night game that will really light this place up," Patko said.
The tribute to Hayes will be moved to the Southeast corner of the stadium, also in backlit cabinets.
The installation, which features up to the minute technologies which allow for 20mm pictures and wrap-around messages, is well on its way to completion.
"It should be done by the night practice next week," said Patko.
What will remain to be seen is how the use of the new equipment is divided. Fans will be looking for replays and stats, but IMG is in the business of selling advertising, and will be looking for ways to not only recover their 3 million dollar investment, but turn a profit on it. That means selling time on the ribbon board and scoreboard to sponsors, and that will cut into the amount of time those units will be adding to the game day experience but rather will be engaged in fund raising for IMG.
Return to the-OZone Front Page
(c) 2009 The O-Zone, O-Zone Communications, Inc. All rightsr eserved.
This material may not be published, rebroadcast,rewritten, or redistributed.