Athletic Department wants new scoreboard

The Athletic Department is looking into the purchase of a new scoreboard for its stadium. A new scoreboard could potentially cost up to $60,000. This week, a marketing plan will be developed in conjunction with the booster club in order to raise money for the scoreboard. The athletic department will also hold several fundraisers, and ask for money from donors in order to raise the $50,000-$60,000 necessary for the purchase.

The current scoreboard began running into problems last fall, and needed a driver replacement. The drivers run the scoreboard electrically. The scoreboard continued to malfunction last spring, when the operating console broke down. This fall, the current wiring system is not working, which has forced the purchase of yet another console.

Blair Athletic Director Rita Boulé believes that the age of the scoreboard contributed to its failure. "The current scoreboard is very old by industry standards. So when anything breaks in the scoreboard or with the console, there is the great possibility that it cannot be fixed. Currently it seems to be working, but we are definitely on borrowed time," Boulé said.

The cost of the new scoreboard will be at least $50,000. Any potential extra work needed could cost another $10,000. Although a replacement for the scoreboard will not come cheap, it will include many new features that the current scoreboard lacks. "The new scoreboards are LED [light-emitting diode] so we can control the names of the home/away teams, and it is much brighter. The new console is also wireless so we will not have to worry about underground wiring. We could control it from anywhere in the stadium," Boulé said.

The scoreboard has not worked for any football games this year but has worked for one boys' varsity soccer game. "The scoreboard worked for our game against Gaithersburg last Thursday," junior soccer player Alex Epstein said.