Levine: White Sox Will Install Giant, State-Of-The-Art Video Boards
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Not to be outdone by the Cubs, the White Sox and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority will roll out three new state-of-the-art video boards at U.S. Cellular Field for the 2016 season.
The crown jewel of the renovation will be an irregular-shaped center-field video board. The current board that's 28 feet by 53 feet (1,484 square feet) will be replaced with a high-tech video board that will be four to five times the size of the current one. It will be roughly 7,000 square feet.
The entire grouping of the three boards will be in color, with the capacity to provide the up-to-date technology, statistical data and video to match any in sports.
Currently, the U.S. Cellular Field center-field video board is the smallest in baseball. The existing board and advertising panels around it will be completely replaced and expanded to fill that entire space. The existing board was installed in 2003, just before the White Sox hosted the All-Star Game that season.
U.S Cellular Field (formerly Comiskey Park) was erected in 1989-'90 and opened on April 18, 1991. The White Sox lease the ballpark from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. The franchise retains the right of control over all other staged events at the stadium other than baseball.
The Cubs added video boards to Wrigley Field at the beginning of the 2015 season, including a 3,990-square-foot screen in left field. That was part of the first stage of an ongoing five-year renovation project at the 101-year-old ballpark.
The Mariners boast the biggest video board in MLB at 11,425 square feet (about 57 feet by 202 feet) at Safeco Field.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
