Assembly Hall touts new scoreboard

Come basketball season, the Hoosier nation will see a very different Assembly Hall for the first time in the venue's history.\nMidway through this summer, the stadium -- built in 1970 -- began its journey into the 21st century when construction of a state-of-the-art, $1.9 million scoreboard-video board started.\nThe addition will enhance the game experience and will pull in yearly advertising revenue without costing the athletics department any out-of-pocket expense, giving the department a projected $250,000 in revenue for its first year.\nAnd while Assembly Hall has featured ads in its concourse and network banners for televised games, a men's basketball game has yet to feature advertising of this kind. \nIU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan said in a statement earlier this summer that his primary objective is to preserve the tradition of IU basketball while making enhancements of this kind.\n"We are looking to create a positive fan experience, while still preserving the distinct look of Assembly Hall," he said. "Additionally, a vital part of our mission is to continually develop new sources of revenue that will help sustain our total athletics program for the benefit of all of our student-athletes. \n"However, we have been extremely careful in this process not to negatively affect the aura and aesthetics of Assembly Hall."\nBob Agramonte, general manager of IU Sports Properties -- the exclusive media and advertising rights holder for IU athletics since 1993 -- has spoken with friends of his employed at ESPN's talk radio 950 AM and said they haven't received any negative calls in regards to the new advertising.\n"I think it was just something people might have disliked philosophically at first," Agramonte said.\nA giant four-screen, mid-court scoreboard will replace the former 11-season old scoreboard. It will feature video, statistics and scoring. Advertisements will dangle on a center-hung Pro-Ad Ring, making IU and Wisconsin the only two Big Ten programs with this feature.\nAssembly Hall's timing system hasn't been completely exact, either -- as it only kept time to the tenth of a second in the past. The new system will update it to a hundredth-of-a-second accuracy.\nBranch McCracken Court, located in Assembly Hall, will also feature four auxiliary portal scoreboards, three-sided shot clocks and five ProTable scorer's table units. IU will join the University of North Carolina as the only other school in the country to use the table units.\nWhile all this will heighten the spectators' experience, IU head coach Mike Davis said he thinks this will benefit his recruiting program as well.\n"One of the biggest recruiting tools we have at Indiana is the atmosphere here during a big game," Davis said in a release. "This new scoreboard will be a great resource in helping us continue to build our significant homecourt advantage."\nThe project comes without cost to the athletic department because of a recent agreement renegotiation between the department and IU Sports Properties.\nThe company, a division of Learfield Communications, will provide funding for the project and increased annual rights fee revenue for the department as well.\nThe ad-ring is already slated to feature such clients as Regions Bank, State Farm Insurance and O'Reilly Auto Parts.\nBriscoe Quad residents and 17th Street commuters will see a crane and other construction vehicles in the Assembly Hall parking lot as the project's end draws near. Currently, among other things, the roof is being strengthened to support the new scoreboard's 26,000 pounds -- nearly 20,000 pounds heavier than the old one. This alone will cost $800,000.\nThe investment might pay off as other Hoosier teams look to benefit.\nIU women's basketball head coach Sharon Versyp said the new additions will help her to achieve her goal of building a strong fan base for her squad.\n"Very few programs in the country have this type of technology in their on-campus facility," Versyp said in a statement. "IU women's basketball is a sleeping giant. It has a ton of potential. There is just so much tradition here. We need to build it. We need to have character and build a foundation. We need to get the state excited about IU women's basketball"