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Huge
video screen added
to Griz football stadium
Question:
What do Times Square and Washington-Grizzly Stadium have
in common?
Answer:
The same type of massive video screen.
In
a dream come true for University of Montana football fans,
a new video scoreboard with a huge 36-by-26-foot full-color
screen was installed at the stadium just in time for the
Sept. 21 Homecoming game.
The
screen, which until recently displayed ads for people thronging
New York City's Times Square, is the largest used at a I-AA
university and the fifth-largest screen in all of college
football, according to Chuck Maes, UM associate athletic
director.
It's
definitely the biggest television in Montana - visible for
miles outside the stadium - and the best part is that it
came to the University basically free of charge.
Maes
said no taxpayer dollars were used to bring the huge screen
to Montana. Instead it will be paid for by advertising on
the scoreboard and at fixed locations in the stadium. The
estimated cost for the scoreboard and its installation is
about $2.3 million.
In
addition, Virtu Consulting, the company that procured the
scoreboard for UM, has agreed to pay the University $570,000
annually from advertising revenues -- an amount that equals
all proceeds generated by past stadium scoreboard advertising
agreements.
Virtu
Consulting is managed by Terry Pugh, a UM alumnus who played
linebacker for the Griz during the late '60s and early '70s.
His company maintains similar video scoreboards at the University
of Arizona, Florida State University, Ohio State University
and other campuses. It was his idea to buy the screen from
investors in New York City, where the screen was making
less money because of the Sept. 11 attacks and the current
economic slowdown. Virtu also intends to install another
electronic scoreboard in the Adams Center.
UM
players actually saw the screen hanging in Times Square
when they flew to New York to tackle Hofstra on Aug. 29.
Maes said the screen's trip to Montana was slowed by heightened
security measures in New York City and getting the proper
permits to remove the huge apparatus from one of the busiest
chunks of real estate in North America. Missoula-area trucking
firms eventually hauled the scoreboard components to Montana,
where workers had three days to get it up and running in
time for Homecoming. Maes said the screen took two weeks
to become operational at Times Square when it was first
installed.
"We
worked on the screen all night," UM athletic director
Wayne Hogan said on the sidelines during the Homecoming
game. "We got it running 10 minutes before the game."
The
screen offered huge images of the game, the fans and more.
When two Air Force jets buzzed the stadium during the national
anthem, they were first seen coming on the big screen. The
scoreboard also offered entertaining images such as Godzilla
and King Kong stomping and pounding or a rowdy locker room
scene from the football movie "Varsity Blues."
Monte the mascot's antics could be watched in three-story
grandeur, and the "Kiss Cam" let couples express
their love before 19,589 screaming Griz fans, a stadium
record.
The
screen also has created the phenomenon of Griz players glancing
upward to see a crisp instant replay of their last play.
And it puts more pressure on the refs, since the screen
often shows if a flag was warranted.
The
camerawork for the new screen is provided by Griz Vision,
a group of about a dozen UM radio-television journalism
students. They earn $7.75 per hour and valuable job experience
as they produce the intense, four-hour program each game
day. Many of the students have no experience shooting sports,
but fans say their telecasts have looked highly professional.
Maes said the scoreboard adds an exciting element to one
of the most vibrant stadiums in I-AA football.
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