Eastern Washington University announced last Friday it is taking steps to replace the 23-year-old Roos Field scoreboard with a new video scoreboard that will enhance the game-day experience for students, fans and athletes. In addition, a new video board will be added to the existing scoreboard at Reese Court in the Pavilion.
The project will be financed by the EWU Foundation and will not include any taxpayer or non-designated donor dollars. The primary source of funding will come from advertising revenue generated from the scoreboards, which will also produce revenue for scholarships.
“The EWU Foundation is excited to invest in an opportunity that fulfills a university need while creating a mechanism to generate scholarship support,” Michael Westfall, executive director of the EWU Foundation, said. The Foundation is the non-profit corporation that will take the leading role in managing this project.
The existing Roos Field scoreboard has been used for 112 football games since its installation in 1989, when Eastern returned the majority of its football games back to campus after using Spokane's Joe Albi Stadium from 1984-1988. It has also been used for numerous high school football games and track meets.
“The ability to move our game-day environment into the video age is tremendously important,” EWU athletics director Bill Chaves said. “There is no doubt that fans in the 21st century expect quality video capabilities at games, but almost, if not more important, is the ability for the university to have a platform to tell ‘Eastern's story' in a compelling way at home games.”
The video scoreboard will come on the heels of the installation of red synthetic turf in 2010, which was made possible with a lead gift from Michael and Katherine Roos in addition to many other generous donors. The scoreboard project is the next logical step in facility enhancements.
“This type of enhancement will only help connect more people to EWU when visiting campus whether for athletics, community events or commencement,” Foundation chair Rob Neilson said. “Part of the Foundation's mission is to generate more interest in the university and this project will go a long way toward that goal.”
The video scoreboard is expected to be in place by Sept. 1 for a high school kickoff event that will take place on Roos Field.The Reese Court video board will be installed shortly thereafter. Daktronics, one of the nation's leading scoreboard manufacturers, will construct both boards.
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