Penn State fans hoping to see high definition replays at Beaver Stadium next season are going to have to wait.
Last May, Penn State launched a project to replace the two scoreboards at its football stadium, and new scoreboards were originally slated to be installed by the start of the 2012 season. However, Associate Athletic Director for Facilities and Operations Mark Bodenschatz said that will not happen.
Bodenschatz said installing the new scoreboards before this season was a consideration, and there were a couple factors that went into the delay of their instillation.
Ultimately, the school's budget is the biggest factor, Bodenschatz said. The original budget of the project was $6.8 million.
"It's just really addressing that cash flow issue with the university and the athletic department," Bodenschatz said. "It's a fairly expensive change out and deferring those costs another year will certainly give us more flexibility in the future."
Though Jason Smith — the project's coordinator — was quoted in a statecollege.com article as saying the new scoreboards will be installed by Aug. 30, 2014, Bodenschatz said the date is still "under consideration." Still, he gave the indication the new scoreboards will be installed by the 2014 season.
The current Beaver Stadium scoreboards were installed prior to the 2001 season and Bodenschatz said the cost of the new scoreboards will depend on their quality.
Bodenschatz noted the details of the new scoreboard have not been finalized, but gave some insight as to what to expect.
"The new boards would likely incorporate a lot larger video and possibly some of the video could be taken up by ad panels, but that could be taken over for replay or something like that," Bodenschatz said. "And the same with the score, […] when you move to a digital format it allows for more flexibility."
