Scope of Work: Design, Procurement and Construction Oversight.
Product Categories: LED Video, Scoring and Signage.
George Mason University
August 31, 2011
New Scoreboard Coming to the Patriot Center
It’s been reported in the past, but never before has it been this certain. The Patriot Center is getting a new scoreboard.
For those expecting to see a scoreboard similar to that of the Verizon Center’s, you will be disappointed. The new scoreboard at the Patriot Center will function much like the old one, but at least it’s expected to be much more visually appealing.
The original scoreboard has seen better days. The outdated technology was ditched by many other venues long ago. Last season, it was not uncommon to see the name of a basketball player misspelled on account of a few burned out bulbs. The new scoreboard will surely take care of that, boasting LED bulbs rather than incandescent. The new scoreboard will be roughly the same height as the current one, but it will be noticeably wider.
A larger scoreboard with video capabilities would have required many more millions of dollars and potentially many years of preparation and planning. The Patriot Center roof would have required significant reinforcements to handle the weight of a heavier scoreboard, and obtaining the necessary code approvals for those reinforcements would take a significant amount of time.
This is not to say that a large, video-able scoreboard is not in the Patriot Center’s future. One of the requirements for the new scoreboard is that it be “modular” in design so that its four sides can be dismantled into four separate scoreboards to be reallocated to other gyms on campus (at the RAC and Skyline) when the time comes to install an even larger scoreboard – that’s thinking 5-10 years out.
In the meantime, spectators’ appetites for instant replay will be satisfied with several large video displays positioned above each tunnel entrance. A total of 15 displays will be installed as part of the scoreboard project – four large corner displays (5′ 2″ x 13′ 6″) and 11 smaller displays (3′ 4″ x 9′ 4″). Additionally, the concourse will feature five new large-screen TVs.
But the installation won’t happen overnight. Bidding opened up today and work won’t begin until late fall, at the earliest. Scheduling work around basketball practices and games will be a significant challenge during the season, but university officials wanted to act as quickly as possible now that the best course of action has been identified.
