A new, huge HD scoreboard was unveiled for hockey fans at the Air Canada Center in Toronto on Sept. 11. It's the latest, and perhaps most obvious, step in an ongoing multi-million dollar renovation of the nearly 10-year-old sports arena that is home to the NHL Maple Leafs and NBA Raptors.
The team said the HD detail of the state-of-the-art LED scoreboard will allow the arena to display scores, stats, and other live data from throughout the league, as well as instant video replays and close-ups of live entertainment featured during match breaks and halftimes.
Replacing the traditional four-sided scoreboard and VHS signal feed is a system with 17 HD screens, with the central boards extending to 17x10 feet each. The LED display will increase light output by about 800 percent, the Maple Leafs said. The new display also is equipped with a 72-foot long circular ring.
The Maple Leafs said they visited about a dozen other arenas in Canada and the United States, and came away most impressed with the current scoreboard system in use at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., home to the NBA Wizards and NHL Capitals.
The cost of the new scoreboard (not including necessary renovations to the control room) came in at about $4.7 million.
