A new scoreboard planned for the Palace of Auburn Hills will have "six video screens, triple the size of the 15-year-old system it replaces," and is the "capstone of a three-year," $40M renovation by team Owner Tom Gores and Platinum Equity, according to Tom Walsh of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. Palace Sports & Entertainment President & CEO Dennis Mannion last week "shared renderings" of the scoreboard and "details of the renovations" to arena. The rectangular scoreboard is "not only huge -- 60 feet wide and 22-feet high from foul line to foul line -- but also boasts video displays 21 times sharper than its predecessor." In addition to "four huge horizontal screens on the giant center-hung scoreboard, the Palace360 system will feature two underbelly video screens that the teams and courtside fans will be able to view from below." Daktronics Regional Sales Manager Will Ellerbruch said, "I think the Oklahoma City Thunder arena and Madison Square Garden are the only other two with that feature." Also, 30 LED screens over tunnels to the concourses will "carry both ads and player and team statistics." Ellerbruch: "I haven’t seen that in other venues." Meanwhile, Walsh noted Pistons season-ticket sales "plunged to a low of 2,800 the year before" Gores bought the team in '11, "rising to 3,600 and 4,800 the past two years." Season-ticket renewals last year were an "encouraging 88%, and Mannion expects to approach 6,000 season-ticket sales" by this season's opener against the Nets (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 9/7).
