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New scoreboards, video screens will be installed at Coughlin, Frost
Chris Solari
csolari@argusleader.com
Published: 07/23/05
BROOKINGS - South Dakota State fans and athletes will get a whole new experience this fall when they attend home games at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium and Frost Arena.
SDSU began work early this week on preparing Coughlin, the football stadium, for a new state-of-the-art scoreboard, with the goal to have the system up and running when the Jacks open the 2005 season on Sept. 3.
A similar project will follow at Frost with plans to finish there for the basketball openers in November.
The total price tag for both projects is nearly $3 million.
The new additions will include large video replay screens, murals of SDSU athletes around the two venues and video screens near concession stands.
By adding the Daktronics scoreboards, SDSU expects two things to happen - gain money from sponsorships and marketing and help entice recruits with the enhancements.
"It's totally going to change what Frost Arena looks like," men's basketball coach Scott Nagy said. "It's hard even to look at the pictures just to visualize. We've already got a great arena, but this is going to make it that much better."
The improvements to Frost will begin after the ones at Coughlin are finished.
Coughlin-Alumni's 40-yard wide-by-56-feet high scoreboard will house a 17-by-28 feet video board that can be used for in-game broadcasts, replays and advertising. It will be counted on to bring a new atmosphere and energy to the 43-year-old stadium.
"You're going to see a lot of featuring of our student-athletes in the murals and everything," SDSU Athletic Director Fred Oien said. "We want student-athletes, when they come to South Dakota State, to understand that they are first and foremost."
The Frost Arena project - which will include a four-sided video scoreboard above the court, a 37-foot LED scorer's table and 60 feet-wide-by-4 feet-high video strips on the walls behind the baskets.
"We're very proud of what we've come to the table with from a design perspective," said Tom Coughlin, the North Central region manager for Daktronics Sports Marketing. "We think the entire community, and the entire fan base of South Dakota State, will be pleased with what they see."
The project is being paid for by the SDSU Foundation, which is a private, non-profit corporation that acts as a fund-raising arm of the university. The Board of Regents approved the action in December 2004. Oien said the athletic department will pay back the $3 million to the Foundation over 10 years.
"You might get the impression that we had to go raise money to build the scoreboards," he said. "We're really investing money to expand the value of those gifts."
The money being used for the scoreboards is separate from the SDSU Foundation's Lifelong Champions campaign. That fund-raising effort is to raise $20 million by 2008.
SDSU told the Board of Regents that the new scoreboards would help generate in the neighborhood of $400,000 annually in revenue for the athletic department. Oien said that was a "very conservative" estimate made to the Regents, and that the long-term corporate sponsorship money should easily surpass that level.
"Our sponsors have really responded," said Oien, who brokered the financial aspects of the Daktronics deal. "They understand what this is about - they want a piece of the Division I experience."
Keyframe, another division of Daktronics, will provide the game-day production, as well as video and advertising content on the scoreboards. About 10-12 people will be needed to run the video operations.
The video screens will also be used for other events at the venues, such as band concerts and graduation.
"It's going to affect more than just men's and women's basketball and football," said Keith Mahlum, who is in charge of major donations to the athletic department. "At many of the other events we host in our facility throughout the year, there will be some ongoing use of this technology. It will add enhancements to a lot of events in that facility."
SDSU's old scoreboard systems were near the end of their lifespans. The one at Frost was installed with the building's completion in 1973, while the one at Coughlin-Alumni was built in 1977. Mark Steinkamp, a marketing and sales support manager for Daktronics, said the basketball scoreboard was one of the company's oldest still in use.
The athletic department had been working toward getting new scoreboards for at least the last six years.
Daktronics is headquartered in Brookings.
Reach Chris Solari at 977-3923.
[glb]Nice picture of the unit shown on the Argus site above.[/glb]
New scoreboards, video screens will be installed at Coughlin, Frost
Chris Solari
csolari@argusleader.com
Published: 07/23/05
BROOKINGS - South Dakota State fans and athletes will get a whole new experience this fall when they attend home games at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium and Frost Arena.
SDSU began work early this week on preparing Coughlin, the football stadium, for a new state-of-the-art scoreboard, with the goal to have the system up and running when the Jacks open the 2005 season on Sept. 3.
A similar project will follow at Frost with plans to finish there for the basketball openers in November.
The total price tag for both projects is nearly $3 million.
The new additions will include large video replay screens, murals of SDSU athletes around the two venues and video screens near concession stands.
By adding the Daktronics scoreboards, SDSU expects two things to happen - gain money from sponsorships and marketing and help entice recruits with the enhancements.
"It's totally going to change what Frost Arena looks like," men's basketball coach Scott Nagy said. "It's hard even to look at the pictures just to visualize. We've already got a great arena, but this is going to make it that much better."
The improvements to Frost will begin after the ones at Coughlin are finished.
Coughlin-Alumni's 40-yard wide-by-56-feet high scoreboard will house a 17-by-28 feet video board that can be used for in-game broadcasts, replays and advertising. It will be counted on to bring a new atmosphere and energy to the 43-year-old stadium.
"You're going to see a lot of featuring of our student-athletes in the murals and everything," SDSU Athletic Director Fred Oien said. "We want student-athletes, when they come to South Dakota State, to understand that they are first and foremost."
The Frost Arena project - which will include a four-sided video scoreboard above the court, a 37-foot LED scorer's table and 60 feet-wide-by-4 feet-high video strips on the walls behind the baskets.
"We're very proud of what we've come to the table with from a design perspective," said Tom Coughlin, the North Central region manager for Daktronics Sports Marketing. "We think the entire community, and the entire fan base of South Dakota State, will be pleased with what they see."
The project is being paid for by the SDSU Foundation, which is a private, non-profit corporation that acts as a fund-raising arm of the university. The Board of Regents approved the action in December 2004. Oien said the athletic department will pay back the $3 million to the Foundation over 10 years.
"You might get the impression that we had to go raise money to build the scoreboards," he said. "We're really investing money to expand the value of those gifts."
The money being used for the scoreboards is separate from the SDSU Foundation's Lifelong Champions campaign. That fund-raising effort is to raise $20 million by 2008.
SDSU told the Board of Regents that the new scoreboards would help generate in the neighborhood of $400,000 annually in revenue for the athletic department. Oien said that was a "very conservative" estimate made to the Regents, and that the long-term corporate sponsorship money should easily surpass that level.
"Our sponsors have really responded," said Oien, who brokered the financial aspects of the Daktronics deal. "They understand what this is about - they want a piece of the Division I experience."
Keyframe, another division of Daktronics, will provide the game-day production, as well as video and advertising content on the scoreboards. About 10-12 people will be needed to run the video operations.
The video screens will also be used for other events at the venues, such as band concerts and graduation.
"It's going to affect more than just men's and women's basketball and football," said Keith Mahlum, who is in charge of major donations to the athletic department. "At many of the other events we host in our facility throughout the year, there will be some ongoing use of this technology. It will add enhancements to a lot of events in that facility."
SDSU's old scoreboard systems were near the end of their lifespans. The one at Frost was installed with the building's completion in 1973, while the one at Coughlin-Alumni was built in 1977. Mark Steinkamp, a marketing and sales support manager for Daktronics, said the basketball scoreboard was one of the company's oldest still in use.
The athletic department had been working toward getting new scoreboards for at least the last six years.
Daktronics is headquartered in Brookings.
Reach Chris Solari at 977-3923.
[glb]Nice picture of the unit shown on the Argus site above.[/glb]
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