The Blue Jackets yesterday began installing at Nationwide Arena the "crown jewel" in this summer’s $6.4M renovation project: "a state-of-the-art, high-definition scoreboard that dwarfs the old model in both size and capability,” according to Aaron Portzline of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. The new scoreboard, built by Daktronics, will “have 2,630 square feet of viewing space vs. the old one’s 576 square feet, a 357 percent increase.” The main board on each of the four sides “will be 25 feet wide and 15.5 feet high,” and will be “all in high-definition.” The ribbon boards that wrap around the rink “will be lengthened and upgraded to high-definition,” allowing the staff to “provide real-time information to fans, such as which players are on the ice and updated statistics for each player.” The project is “to be completed Sept. 15, one week before Blue Jackets training camp is scheduled to open.” Franklin County (Ohio) Convention Facilities Authority “spent nearly all of a $7 million capital-improvements fund to upgrade Nationwide.” The new scoreboard “required a bigger control room and significant technical upgrades.” Of the $5.86M spent on the scoreboard, roughly $2.5M "was for the devices to control it.” There were other projects this summer “funded by the authority’s capital-improvements fund; they included new dasher boards and glass around the rink ($190,000) and upgrades to the ice plant ($39,495).” FCCFA Exec Dir Bill Jennison said that within “two years, all the seats in Nationwide will be replaced.” But Portzline wrote the “star of the show is the scoreboard” (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 8/27).
