Time is up for South Whidbey High School’s three-decades-old scoreboards at the main athletic field and gymnasium.
School officials say new ones are sorely needed, and began discussing cost and funding options with the school board at its regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday.
Maintenance Director Brian Miller provided information on the deteriorating state of the scoreboards and later presented several options for replacing them. Miller said new but similar scoreboards could cost $45,000. Another option includes fancier digital and video scoreboards, but they come at a steeper price tag of $183,050. The purchase would be contingent on secured funding in the form of signed advertising contracts, he said.
The main field scoreboard would be first priority. The district currently has $25,000 set aside in its capital projects budget to pay for a replacement.
Video scoreboards’ customizable screens offer advertising opportunities for community businesses, as well as different configurations for differing events, Miller said. Those same advertising opportunities could help pay for the scoreboard itself, he added, under a marketing and fundraising plan proposed by Miller and community member Jon Chapman at the meeting. The plan would allow businesses to purchase long-term advertising on the back of the football field’s press box and main gym wall, and short-term advertising on the video scoreboards. The revenue would be used to make up the difference in cost for the video scoreboards. For long-term advertising, payments could be made over three to four years and buy advertising space on the stadium or gym for 20 years. Payment plans for short-term advertising are still being worked out, Miller said in a phone interview Friday afternoon.
“If we can secure contracts that cover 75 percent of the difference, that would be enough to go forward and we would continue to market that difference,” Miller said. “We could work this any way that makes sense to the district that we feel we could sell and work with the community.”
“Basically the idea is to find a limited number of relatively high donations from business or community members,” Miller said.
Chapman said at the meeting that he is willing to gauge the community on its interest in helping support the replacement of the scoreboards, as well as make phone calls and schedule meetings to secure advertising contracts.
“It’s a sponsorship opportunity and I know there’s a lot of community interest in the scoreboards,” said Chapman, who is also a 1984 graduate of South Whidbey High School. “For the last four to five years, I’ve had different people come to me, I’m not sure why, just talking about the scoreboard from all walks of life. I think there’s interest in it, a lot of interest. I think there’s enough to where we could probably fill that gap.”
Board Director Shawn Nowlin expressed doubt that businesses would have enough money for an advertising contract in the foreseeable future. Nowlin said that sponsorships or advertising contracts can be secured, but that money from the agreement wouldn’t come until next year due to businesses not having enough money in their budgets.
Miller clarified the proposal’s details.
“When I say 75 percent, we’re saying 75 percent in committed contracts,” Miller said. “That may come in three to five years. But at least we have it down on paper, they’ve agreed and we feel confident that we’ve reduced our risk.”
Chapman said after the meeting that the scoreboard was brand new when he was a freshman at the high school, and that helping the football program is one of his incentives for undertaking the project. He added that he’s also a track and field junkie and was inspired by King’s High School’s state-of-the-art scoreboard systems while watching his son, Carl Henry Chapman, competing for Langley Middle School.
“We have a new track here and I think they’re maybe talking about a new football field in the near future, so the scoreboard needs to be replaced,” Jon Chapman said. “I think people just see it and think it’s time for it to be replaced.”
South Whidbey High School Athletic Director Paul Lagerstedt said the need to replace the main field’s scoreboard became apparent during the Falcons’ opening football game in September, as the scoreboard failed completely just prior to halftime. Miller said the main gym’s scoreboard had frequent problems with an increasing number of lights that became damaged or corroded and cannot be replaced.
Widespread agreement amongst the board of directors was evident that the scoreboards needed replacing, as they authorized Chapman and Miller to move forward with more information-gathering. Chapman will provide the results of his community business contacts at the district’s next workshop in July.
“The board needs time to read the information presented last night, since we hadn’t had access to those documents prior to the meeting,” said Board Chairwoman Linda Racicot in an email. “We also need more information regarding funding, which will help us determine which “level” (expense) of scoreboard we will pursue. We will revisit the topic at the next workshop, and hopefully have more of the information we need to assist us in our decision-making process.”
