New Scoreboard on the Rise in Huntsman
The floor of the Huntsman Center is a mess, strewn with electronic parts, black metal beams, cables, pulleys and a couple of utility trucks with the workers who use them. There's no room to so much as dribble a basketball, let alone conduct a practice, so the Utes are having to hold their pre-season workouts in a gym in the nearby HPER Complex.
And they could hardly be happier about it.
The Huntsman Center is a mess because workers are busy installing the new video scoreboard -- one of the capital improvements that athletic director Chris Hill announced last spring as a product of the Utes' partnership with Utah Sports Properties to manage all of their corporate sponsorship opportunities. Utah Sports Properties has committed $2 million to the improvements, which might be pretty close to what the Utes need to pay for the new scoreboard.
After all, director of basketball operations Jonathan Dykema said the new scoreboard is expected to look a lot like the one installed at Indiana University two years ago, and that cost the Hoosiers $1.99 million.
"I don't know what the dollar amount is," coach Jim Boylen said, "but I'm thankful for it."
No doubt, fans will be thankful, too.
The previous scoreboard -- gone now -- might have been nice when it was installed in 1994, but it was all but awful the last few seasons, when the video displays were so faint and washed out that fans had a hard time seeing the images clearly from just about anywhere in the arena. Presumably, that's going to change, and fans will have a good sharp view of Boylen ranting and raving in his first season on the sideline.
The Utes expect the installation of the new scoreboard to be finished by about the second week of October. Then, after a couple of days of testing, it's expected to make its debut during the "Night With the Utes" celebration of the first day of practice on Oct. 12.
And they could hardly be happier about it.
The Huntsman Center is a mess because workers are busy installing the new video scoreboard -- one of the capital improvements that athletic director Chris Hill announced last spring as a product of the Utes' partnership with Utah Sports Properties to manage all of their corporate sponsorship opportunities. Utah Sports Properties has committed $2 million to the improvements, which might be pretty close to what the Utes need to pay for the new scoreboard.
After all, director of basketball operations Jonathan Dykema said the new scoreboard is expected to look a lot like the one installed at Indiana University two years ago, and that cost the Hoosiers $1.99 million.
"I don't know what the dollar amount is," coach Jim Boylen said, "but I'm thankful for it."
No doubt, fans will be thankful, too.
The previous scoreboard -- gone now -- might have been nice when it was installed in 1994, but it was all but awful the last few seasons, when the video displays were so faint and washed out that fans had a hard time seeing the images clearly from just about anywhere in the arena. Presumably, that's going to change, and fans will have a good sharp view of Boylen ranting and raving in his first season on the sideline.
The Utes expect the installation of the new scoreboard to be finished by about the second week of October. Then, after a couple of days of testing, it's expected to make its debut during the "Night With the Utes" celebration of the first day of practice on Oct. 12.
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 4:42 PM |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home