Scoreboards

Electronic scoreboards have developed considerably since the original intent of the boards, which was simply do list the scores and time of a game in progress. For instance, Fenway has the Green Monster which is a great example of how scoreboards were originally designed. These were simple, sport specific tools for displaying game activity and score, operated by a scorekeeper who popped his head out of portholes to change tags by the inning. In other cases, a ladder was used and a scorekeeper would climb it to change the score each inning manually. Scoreboards maintained a basic rectangle or square shape for most sports, given than the design was the most efficient way for the game information to be displayed in its entirety.

With the development and implementation of new technology, especially with lights and electronic timers, the sports scoreboard received an upgrade. Instead of having to update everything by hand, out in the field, new electronic scoreboards allowed scorekeepers to update them by remote, which was much easier. Also with the development of the new electronic scoreboards, scoreboard designs also changed, allowing more creative displays in general as well as advertising space for corporations and sponsors. Electronic scoreboards added in a bit of flair which made the medium more effective for advertising.

These boards were also powered by thousands of wedge light bulbs that ran from a computer controller to display various numbers and information. These incandescent lights offered high illumination and were much easier to see during dark days or the waning hours where natural lighting diminished.

From the light bulbs, the next step was the development of LED technology and using the new LED's over the older bulb displays. LED's used less power, generated less heat and offered a variety of color possibilities. The technology itself had been around for some time, but effective use in any field needed some major leaps in technological improvement before scoreboards and electronic display boards could utilize the devices. When the technology did advance far enough, virtually all scoreboards began to use LED's for lighting, drastically reducing power consumption, increased visibility and brightness and having much longer lifespans per bulb over older incandescents.

Technology for scoreboards then took a different rout with the addition of advertising and video mediums with electronic display boards. With large video displays adding much more to the attention grabbing purposes of a scoreboard, advertisers took notice. Electronic display boards do what billboards and signs can't and thats grab attention. It is easy for fans to fade banners and signs draped all around the stadium into the background, largely ignoring any message an advertiser or sponsor would wise to communicate. Video adds options for these advertisers, making a message much more likely to be received by the intended audience.

On top of the advertising potential, electronic display boards on sports scoreboards served as a focal point for new stadium construction, usually being an item high on the priority list to get right and keep up with whatever is the latest and greatest in devices. This brings us to today, with boards that are capable of running high definition video and displaying all of the game statistics on a board that has no space explicitly left for scoreboard purposes.

Scoreboard evolution has come a long way, and technology has played a large roll in its development.