Dragons President Robert Murphy said the upgrades symbolize the commitment to the region of the team’s new owners, Palisades Arcadia Baseball LLC, who bought the Dragons in August 2014 from its founding ownership group.
The investments also are intended to continue the Dragons’ all-time consecutive sellout streak into the team’s 16th season, he said.
“Of all the different things that we could spend money on in the stadium, we felt that this decision to go with the HD board and the larger board would be more impactful to our fans, our customers and our corporate partners,” Murphy said.
The cost of the entire video board project exceeds $1 million, including demolition of the old video board, which started Tuesday, and installation of the new one.
Last year, the Dragons invested more than $1.2 million to upgrade the ballpark’s entertainment control room and add HD cameras throughout the facility, in anticipation of the new video board.
“That means that this whole digital system is over $2 million, which really points out how important the concept of game presentation is these days in sports,” Murphy said.
The control room upgrades also benefit the Dragons’ 25 annual televised games, which are shown on WHIO-TV, he said.
Officials said the new video board will provide the clearest picture quality of any board at a minor league baseball venue. It is the stadium’s third video board since the facility opened in April 2000.
The “fire breathing” Dragons on the top of the scoreboard will remain and continue to blow smoke when home runs are hit.
The new addition measures 35 feet high and 65 feet wide, making it the tallest and widest video board in Class A baseball, and among the top five tallest and widest at any minor league stadium.
The video board will have five times more display area than the previous board, and is twice the height and 2.5 times the width of its predecessor.
In addition, the new board will feature 16 times as many LEDs as the previous display, making it three times brighter, with the ability to cut through sunlight to improve day game presentations, officials said.
The new board features variable content zoning, which allows it to show one large image encompassing the entire screen, or be segmented into multiple zones to highlight a combination of live video, instant replays, scoring information, statistics, graphics and animations, and sponsor messaging.
While the Dragons don’t anticipate additional advertising revenues related to the new display, “we are looking at a signature presenting sponsorship of this video board,” Murphy said.
He said the team plans to announce additional customer experience improvements before the Dragons open their home season on April 12 at Fifth Third Field.
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