SF Giants Install Hi-Def Scoreboard

Giants score big: Club to unveil huge hi-def scoreboard
By Ellen Lee, San Francisco Chronicle
Retrieved from SFGate.om
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/26/BUGBGOQNLM1.DTL


This article talks about how the San Francisco Giants baseball team is using technology to improve the fan’s experience and keep them coming to AT&T Park. The latest high-tech addition to the ballpark is a high-definition scoreboard that cost over $3 million and is 31½ feet high by 103 feet wide. The team spent more than two years and about $10 million on the project. There are only two other scoreboards like it in professional sports. One is at Turner Park in Atlanta and the other is at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. AT&T Park has always been very into technology. In 2004 they set up a wireless broadband network for fans, last year they mounted 225 flat-screen high-definition televisions throughout the ballpark, and this year they added thirteen 17-inch LCD televisions on the stadium's Dugout Club level as well installing hundreds of solar panels around the stadium that will produce as much as 120 kilowatts of energy.

I have gone to a few games at AT&T Park and I have always been impressed with how fan-friendly the stadium is. There really is not a bad seat in the stadium as far as view goes (however, some are VERY windy) and the food is great. I think this new scoreboard will be a great addition. One feature that I like best is that when a player hits a homerun into McCovey Cove the screen will split so that fans can see both the hit and people waiting in their kayaks to scoop up the ball. I thought it was interesting how the article said that technological improvements have made the ballgame experience as enjoyable at home as it is live. I do not agree with this statement. For me, watching the game at home on television is nowhere near as exciting as being at the ballpark; nothing can recreate the ballpark atmosphere.