Our demand for the best technology is insatiable, and sports fans seem to be on the top of that food chain. Big isn’t big enough, it now has to be gigantic, in full blazing HD color and in our face. Some of the nation’s largest scoreboards give a view of such excellence that the people in the nosebleed area think they are on the field. This is the era of electronic scoreboard-a-rama.
In 2009, the Dallas Stadium premiered their 160’ HD display. This goes beyond a scoreboard: weighing in at 1.2 million pounds, it requires a team of technology experts to operate it and the cost was twice that of the old stadium used by the Cowboys. The screen was an extravaganza of brilliance. The color was crisp and every fan was aglow with the view. There was only one problem with something so large – when an opposing team’s backup punter made a rather non-descript kick, the football bounced and ricocheted off the screen. It turns out the entire thing was too low.
Texas reigns supreme a second time for the 2006 scoreboard at the University of Texas. The Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin has a scoreboard that measures 55’x134’. The high def resolution is a whopping 2064 by 848 and the entire thing has been nicknamed “Godzillatron”. The name was later changed to “Adzillatron” due to the unusually high quantity of ads that fans have expressed complaints about.
The trend for yet bigger and higher resolution scoreboards and screens seems to have taken hold of not only the U.S. stadium managers but the world. The Japanese have installed their largest version on the horse track in Tokyo and other countries are looking to do the same.
The visual is not the only thing that has been amped up. The screen companies are working with quality audio manufacturers to make sure the fans can hear everything that is happening as if they are listening to a high tech stereo system.
While it is understood that the stadiums must compete with the incredible array of home theatres that the general public may have, should we ask ourselves if there is a point where things have gone just a little too far? When a screen is so large that the fans are watching the screen instead of the game or if the advertising wasn’t well planned but turns the fans against the stadium: maybe someone should rethink if this was such a good idea.
Bigger does not always mean better, especially when you are talking about sports fans. They know what they like, and if you have turned them off by giving them too much of a good thing, they can leave a game feeling like a kid that ate too much candy. Attending a game should be an experience of excitement. There should be a thrill but not a chill.
In the case of these huge displays, don’t give the fans a headache. Sometimes less can be more.
For more information, go to:
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=10827
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzillatron