Safeco Field's 12 scoreboards should be a big hit

High and low tech ways to keep fans informed

When the Mariners take to Safeco Field for the first time on July 15, the team will be outnumbered. Not by the opposing San Diego Padres, but by the stadiums dozen scoreboards.

The scoreboards will run the gamut from the most sophisticated in all of Major League Baseball to a hand-operated board reminiscent of Fenway Parks in Boston. In all, it will cost $7.7 million to keep fans highly informed.

"We want to provide fans' with more information without hitting them over the head with it," said Rebecca Hale, for the Mariners director of public information. "Were pretty excited about the fact it's an integrated system."

Federal Sign of Seattle began installing the scoreboards in January and is expected to finish in late May or early June. Construction of the scoreboards structural supports has been ongoing since October. The 11 electronic boards are being supplied by Daktronics of Brookings, S.D., at a cost of $4 million.

"One of the things we wanted to achieve with the scoreboard system at Safeco Field was something to enhance the fans' experience," said Hale. "We asked Daktronics to create a scoreboard that doesn't exist anywhere in the world."

Daktronics of Brookings, S.D., has come up with the first LED screen in the majors.

Hale said the boards will help keep fans abreast of the game if they go to the bathroom or get something to eat and miss some of the action.

Most of the fans' attention will be turned toward the massive main scoreboard in right centerfield. It measures in at 56 feet high by 190 feet long and features the first light emitting diode (LED) screen in the majors.

The LED screen will stand 26 feet tall and 46 feet wide. Its 1.6 million red, green and blue LEDs will create not only a sharper picture than traditional stadium screens, but also a brighter picture and nearly 17 million colors. Picture sharpness and clarity is expected to be good from nearly every seat in the house, thanks to the specially designed LEDs. On top of that, the system also is capable of carrying high-definition TV signals when they become available.

A companion matrix board will be located in a 34-foot-by-76-foot section of the main board. It will display lineups, statistics, animation and graphics in a monochrome display.

The main board will be rounded out with two advertising panels alongside the LED and matrix screens. Each will measure 34 feet high by 35 feet wide. Below those will be four advertising panels, each about 22 feet tall and 48 feet wide.

Fans will be able to keep track of other games in progress around the league with an out-of-town scoreboard located in left field. It will be 12 feet high by 101 feet wide. In addition to the scores, it will show the current inning being played and who is pitching in the other games. A reader panel on the board will highlight news and happenings around the league. Information will be fed into the scoreboard through a satellite sports wire service and will be automatically updated.

Federal Sign of Seattle is installing 12 scoreboards around the new baseball stadium to keep fans up on the latest plays, out-of-town games, sports news, batter information, pitch speed, Mariners stats and, oh yes, the score.

Three community relations boards round out the electronic scoreboards. They will be located in right field and will display information on the Ks for Kids and Home Runs that Help programs. One 7-foot-by-36-foot board will display greetings and messages for visiting groups and organizations.

The Ks for Kids board will display the number of strikeouts by the current Mariner pitcher, the pitch count, total strikeouts in the game by all Mariner pitchers and total strikeouts by both teams for the game. The display will be 7 by 7 feet.

The Home Runs that Help board will show the total number of home runs hit by Mariner batters during the season. It also will measure 7 by 7 feet.

Feeding information to the 11 electronic scoreboards will be an easy task, thanks to a state-of-the-art control system. It will allow statisticians to hook up to the leagues mainframe computer before the game to download current player stats for both teams. During the game, those stats will be updated by the system so that all information is current and accurate.

If all that high-technology becomes too mind-numbing for the fans, they can focus their attention on the hand-operated scoreboard in left field.

It will display the line score of the game in old-fashioned manner, perhaps taking fans back in time at least until they bite into their $4 Safeco dogs and wash them down with their $5 Safeco beers.

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