Schools

Churchill Boosters Purchase $80,000 Scoreboard

Club hopes to recoup cost of board through advertising.

When students hit the football field for ’s first 2012 home game this fall, they may find themselves dazzled by a multi-thousand dollar addition to their sporting experience.

The school is installing a new scoreboard this summer, funded by the school booster club, at the cost of $80,000 from OES Scoreboards. The board, which replaces the school’s current 13-year-old scorekeeping device, boasts an LED screen that will showcase advertising and videos to the crowd, in addition to regular team scores and stats.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep ontop of Potomac news.

Find out what's happening in Potomacwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 “We started the process not trying to find a fancy shmancy scoreboard for the stadium,” said Jim Edwards, booster club president. “We were looking into ways to fix and maintain older scoreboards.”

The current scoreboard is maintained by a company from Delaware, which charges mileage for each trip to fix bulbs or control panels. “It becomes very expensive just to maintain these older scoreboards,” Edwards said.

Find out what's happening in Potomacwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The school booster club sees the purchase of the new board as an investment that will pay for itself: The board will be used for a field that hosts football, soccer and lacrosse teams. Fall football games alone bring in hundreds of viewers, making the stadium prime advertising space for local businesses. Though advertising prices for the new school board have not yet been determined, businesses currently pay $1,000 for a banner that moves between sporting locals, according to a Gazette report.

“We’re very confident that we can recoup the costs of what we put into it,” Edwards said, adding that he believes this is one way the booster club can help its school during times of budget cuts and tight purses.

“We’re trying to say, ‘You’re having a difficult time, how can we help?’” he said.

WCHS soccer coach Arnold Tarzy is supportive of the scoreboard purchase, hoping its video capabilities bring more excitement to players and their families.

“It’s certainly going to make any event held in the stadium more interesting to those who attend it – makes it more ‘big time’ for the players,” he said. “I think it’s a tremendous addition to the school. It seems to be a good business decision. It’s not very often that the booster club can spend money on needed items and get a revenue.”

We asked Potomac residents what they thought of the purchase of an $80,000 scoreboard, and few voiced negative opinions.

“I go to Churchill but if they came up with the money on their own, I don’t really care to tell you the truth,” Kevin Hauschild told us over Facebook.

Contribute to our Facebook discussion here.

While the school booster club awaits an OK from the county to start construction, Edwards says they also are considering contracting advertising sales to another company. The booster club membership currently stands at 417 families who pay dues of $35 annually, and sometimes contribute much more.

 

 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here