When the Horned Frogs take the baseball field again this spring, they will have a new scoreboard to enhance their fans’ experience.Athletics administration has entered an agreement with Colorado Display Systems, who bid for the new scoreboard’s contract, and construction is scheduled to begin Feb. 14.
The new scoreboard will be approximately 60 feet long, 35 feet high and will feature an LED, or Light Emitting Diode, video display. This will bring instant replay and video highlight capability to Horned Frog baseball, and an LED ribbon board will keep fans informed about TCU news and events.
Athletics director Danny Morrison said TCU wanted to renovate the scoreboard to help promote team sports.
“We are very excited about the new scoreboard,” Morrison said. “We wanted to bring the video element to help promote not only baseball, but our other sports through the LED capabilities that we have. It will give us great flexibility to not only inform the fans about things that are going on at TCU and the baseball game itself but also an opportunity for exposure for our corporate partners.”
Ross Bailey, associate athletics director for operations, who has overseen the process as project engineer, said he thinks the new scoreboard will increase the entertainment value for fans.
“I think it adds a whole new dimension for the fans coming to games,” Bailey said. “It seems like it’s no longer enough for a fan just to throw out a ball and have the contest, you have to have the entertainment side to go with it, and this adds to that overall entertainment.”
Bailey and head baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle traveled to Albuquerque, N.M, to examine the scoreboard in Isotopes Park, similar to the one being built at Lupton Stadium.
Schlossnagle said he thought Isotopes Park’s display was impressive.
“I thought it was as good as there was in athletics,” Schlossnagle said. “They have two of them from two competing companies that we had spoken with, so it was great to be able to compare one product to the other. It was clearly seen that the CDS and Phillips display was superior.”
TCU baseball is excited about the new addition to Lupton Stadium, Schlossnagle said.
The new scoreboard will improve the fan experience and help with recruiting, he said.
“It will really help the fans’ experience,” Schlossnagle said. “It should hopefully help continue to grow attendance as well as help on recruiting because it represents TCU’s commitment to baseball.