Iowa Scoreboards: Basketball and Football Tie at 15 Behind Baseball's 34

What does Electro-Mech's Iowa record show at a glance?

Basketball and football sit level at 15 records each in our Iowa shipping record, behind baseball, and two models, the LX1030 and LX7520, share the lead at 7 records apiece.

Our review of the Iowa sales and shipping record counts each model by its LX equivalent, and that lead pair sits on top of 28 distinct models. The LX1050 and the LX2655 follow at 5 records each. The LX1060 adds 4. No single model defines the state.

For you as a buyer, that spread is the useful part. The right model starts with your sport and your venue, not with what another Iowa program ordered. The LX2655, an indoor basketball scoreboard with volleyball and wrestling captions, is the only gym model in the top five.

The record covers what Electro-Mech sold and shipped, as of a snapshot taken September 14, 2026. Every record is listed by city on Electro-Mech's Iowa state page, so you can check the counts for your own town.

Why does Iowa's sports participation matter when you read its scoreboard record?

Iowa logged 145,730 high school participation entries in 2025-26, its highest level since 2008-09, and each entry plays on a field, diamond or court where players and officials depend on accurate scores and time.

Before you compare models, work through four decisions in order:

1. Name the sport and the venue: a baseball diamond, a football practice field or a gym.
2. Pick a model from its own spec sheet, by cabinet size, digit height and weight.
3. Read the amperage for the exact variant, base or -ETN, before the electrician sizes the circuit.
4. Request a quote for that exact model and variant, because price depends on the order.

According to the Des Moines Register, football participation across 11-player and eight-player programs reached 19,441, its highest statewide total since 2015-16 and the largest single-year gain of any Iowa sport. Baseball counted 10,150 entries in the same Iowa High School Athletic Association report. Growth on that scale reaches practice fields as well as game nights.

Football growth shows up first at practice. The LX7520 spec sheet puts this portable practice segment timer at 4 ft x 3 ft and 40 lb, with 11-inch digits, an internally mounted horn and a draw of 0.5 amps. The optional T-Cart leg kit lets it roll wherever practice moves, and the model page notes it can double as a Play Clock during games. A practice segment timer is both a console operating mode and a display: the mode alone shows nothing.

Contrary to the common assumption that every version of a scoreboard draws the same power, the variant changes the number. The LX1060 and LX1060-ETN spec sheets show the baseball scoreboard drawing 1.1 amps in standard form and 2.4 amps with Electronic Team Names. Hand your electrician the spec sheet for the exact variant you order, so the circuit is sized from that figure.

The variant matters as much as the model. Read the exact spec sheet before anyone sizes a circuit. Combining 4 sources points to one practical rule: start from the sport, then let each model's own documents set the numbers. You can compare layouts on the high school football scoreboards page before you narrow the choice.

Does an Iowa basketball gym need a shot clock display?

Whether an Iowa gym runs a shot clock depends on the state's own associations, because the 35-second shot clock has been approved by state adoption since the 2022-23 season.

The rule sits with each state association. Under the NFHS Basketball Rules Book, every member association may adopt the 35-second shot clock according to the book's guidelines, and none is required to. Before the official approval in 2021, 10 states already allowed a shot clock on an approved experimental basis or outside the NFHS rules framework. The national rule therefore tells you what is permitted, not what your gym will use.

Iowa adds a second layer. KCAU 9 reports that Iowa is the only state with separate governing bodies for boys' and girls' sports: the Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) for boys and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) for girls. The same report puts IHSAA at 83,415 participants, with increases in all 11 sanctioned sports, and IGHSAU at 62,315 participants across 11 sanctioned sports, the first time it has topped 60,000 in over 15 years. Girls' basketball grew by more than 100 participants in that year.

A shared gym serves both seasons. The scoreboard on the wall has to keep accurate time and score for boys' and girls' games alike. Players and officials read it first; the crowd comes second.

Before you order, settle three questions:

• Does the association that governs your games use a shot clock this season?
• Will the scoreboard on the wall need to work alongside a pair of shot clocks at each end?
• Which sports besides basketball will the same gym host?

Confirm the shot clock answer with IHSAA or IGHSAU directly. Then choose the display around it. The basketball scoreboards page lays out the indoor models side by side, so you can match a layout to the games your gym actually hosts.

Where can you see how an Electro-Mech scoreboard is set up and operated?

Start with the model's own spec sheet and owner manual, which Electro-Mech publishes for its scoreboards, then call the Electro-Mech support team about anything those documents leave open.

The spec sheet is the source for every model figure in this article: cabinet size, weight, digit height and power draw for one named model and variant. The owner manual covers how the control console runs that model. Read both before you plan a field or gym.

The console is portable. Operators use it on a table or in their lap and store it indoors between uses. Most customers run it wirelessly over ScoreLink RF rather than a cable.

For a walkthrough of a specific model, such as the LX1030 or the LX2655, two of the five most-shipped models in our Iowa record, ask the Electro-Mech team. They can send the spec sheet and manual for any model named here.

What does the LX2655 show on an Iowa basketball court?

The LX2655 shows guest points, home points and the period clock in 12-inch digits, with every other figure in 9-inch digits, on a 9 ft x 5 ft indoor cabinet.

Iowa basketball carries more history than most gyms can hold. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union says basketball was the first sport it sanctioned, with the first official state championship in 1926. IGHSAU now runs five classes of girls' basketball, with "more than 7,500 girls playing." Every one of those games needs a clock and a score the officials can trust.

The LX2655 spec sheet describes a 133 lb aluminum cabinet with Bonus and Possession indicators 3 inches tall, LED digits in amber, red and green, and a draw of 1.5 amps. The LX2655-ETN, with Electronic Team Names, draws 2.2 amps on its own spec sheet. The model page calls the LX2655 the company's most popular basketball model, and notes that many of its indoor designs are variations on the same layout.

The same scoreboard serves more than basketball. Removable caption plates along the bottom relabel the lower half for volleyball games or wrestling matches. Our review of the spec sheet also lists an internal horn, a data output port for daisy chaining additional displays, a goal light output port, fifty programmable brightness levels and a full-sized 37-key control console with an LCD display.

One gym can host three sports on one display. Caption plates change the labels, not the cabinet. Rinks and outdoor fields need different layouts, and the hockey scoreboards page shows how far an indoor rink display departs from a basketball one.

The Iowa record fits in a few lines of structured data. Each model is counted by its LX equivalent, so variants of one model count as that one model. The two leaders share the top line.

{
  "state": "Iowa",
  "records": 66,
  "cities_and_towns": 41,
  "distinct_models": 28,
  "most_shipped": {
    "LX1030": 7,
    "LX7520": 7,
    "LX1050": 5,
    "LX2655": 5,
    "LX1060": 4
  }
}

Why does baseball hold 34 of the 66 Iowa records?

Baseball holds 34 of the 66 records in the Iowa sales and shipping record, while basketball and football sit level at 15 each, and hockey and soccer hold 1 apiece.

Our review of the shipping record shows 66 records across 41 cities and towns, running from 1999 to 2025, which places Iowa thirty-sixth of fifty states by units shipped. Each record is one row per organization, model and city. If your baseball and softball teams play on separate diamonds, ask the Electro-Mech team about each diamond as its own order.

The research section below walks through these findings.

Participation counts players, not diamonds, fields or gyms. The Gazette reports that football is Iowa's largest high school sport, with 19,383 participants in the IHSAA count, and its reporter writes that football "remains king in Iowa." Basketball and baseball both sit above 10,000 boys' participants. Ask how many diamonds, fields and gyms your own program plays on, since each one is a separate scoreboard decision.

The record does not explain that gap. Read it by sport and model, then check the spec sheet for the model that matches your venue. What it does show is that the baseball models among Iowa's most-shipped are listed on their spec sheets as Baseball / Softball scoreboards.

The most-shipped baseball model shows what a typical order looks like. The LX1030 spec sheet puts the cabinet at 8 ft x 4 ft and 113 lb, with 18-inch digits for Runs and Inning, 4-inch indicators for Ball, Strike and Out, and a draw of 1.1 amps. The model page places it between the LX1050 and LX1060 in size and calls it "just right" for little leagues and high schools.

Basketball's 15 records carry their own friction. Since the 2023-24 season, NFHS Rule 4-8-1 awards two free throws once the opponent commits five fouls in a quarter, and team fouls reset at the end of each quarter. The one-and-one is gone. A gym scoreboard's bonus indication now follows the quarter, not the half.

How do Iowa's five most-shipped models compare on size, weight and power?

Weight follows the model, not the sport: Iowa's five most-shipped models run from the 40 lb LX7520 to the 160 lb LX1060, each with its own cabinet and amperage.

The sport alone tells you little. Our data across the baseball spec sheets runs from 40 lb to 1100 lb, so the number that matters is the one printed for your model. The LX1050 is the smallest permanent outdoor model in the table: 6 ft x 3 ft, 78 lb, with 15-inch digits, 4-1/2 inch captions and 3-inch indicators. The LX1060 sits at the other end, a 10 ft x 5 ft cabinet with 18-inch digits and 7-inch captions, a layout the model page traces to the company's electro-mechanical scoreboards of the 1960s.

Digit height decides who can read the scoreboard. The sign industry allows 50 feet of viewing distance per inch of lighted character height. For anyone sizing an Electro-Mech scoreboard, Electro-Mech recommends the tighter 25 feet per inch of digit height, because a scoreboard also carries captions that need to be read. A larger digit always costs more. Buying too small for the venue is a price decision, not a sizing method.

Football timing adds one more check. NFHS expanded the high school play clock from 25 to 40 seconds in many cases, kept it at 25 seconds in most cases after an official's time-out, and set it at 40 seconds after a defensive injury or equipment issue. The LX7520 can double as a Play Clock during games, so one display can serve practice and game night.

Demand behind these choices is real. According to the IHSAA, Iowa ranked 31st in population but 21st in participation for the third year in a row. Executive director Tom Keating called the increase, during a drop in enrollment, "a testament to the value of the programs our schools offer." Across the five spec sheets in the table, I would start every order with the farthest seat and the exact variant, then ask for a quote on that model.

What should you take from the Iowa record before you order?

Before you order, write down your sport, your venue and the distance to your farthest seat, then ask for that model's spec sheet and a quote on the exact variant.

Start with the rules your games are played under. NFHS now resets team fouls at the end of each quarter, and its football play clock runs at two different lengths. The display you choose should show what your officials need. Then size it to your farthest seat. I would put those two questions ahead of any catalog page.

The spec sheets give you the rest. The LX2655 spec sheet lists double bonus indicators as an option for a basketball gym. Every model on the Iowa record has a spec sheet of its own. Ask the Electro-Mech team for the one that matches your sport.