Padres Exec Chair Ron Fowler yesterday said that construction on a new right-field video board at Petco Park "could begin by early December," according to Dennis Lin of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. The new screen will be "roughly the same size as the old video board in left field, or about a fifth of the size of the current left-field board." Fowler said a team study found that more than 20% of fans, when the ballpark is full, "really have difficulty seeing the board in left field, so we felt we had to do something about it." Lin notes the new video board will "sit above the seats in right field, occupying about two-thirds of the space currently belonging to three billboards." The project, to be ready before the '18 opener, "will cost" more than $2M. In other ballpark news, the Padres have "not yet determined the exact dimensions of the soon-to-be-expanded netting behind home plate." Meanwhile, the Padres' May 4-6 series against the Dodgers in Monterrey, Mexico, was "officially announced" yesterday. Padres season-ticket holders will be "offered refunds for the Monterrey series, with full-season packages going from 81 games to 78 games." Fowler said that season-ticket holders will be "presented with a variety of options and ticket packages." Finally, Fowler said he was "personally shooting" for the team to achieve a .500 record in '18 (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 11/14).
