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Hey, ours is bigger than yours!
Here in Austin, we were thrilled to learn recently that the University of Texas will no longer suffer the humiliation of having a football scoreboard that’s a mere 70-feet wide by 40-feet high. Nosiree, our state’s flagship academic institution is soon to be Numero Uno in the world – scoreboard-wise.
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Our current, dinky, $3.5 million scoreboard is 10-years old, for godsake, and, embarrassingly, it’s outsized by those at Ohio State and even Arkansas! Luckily, though, we have bold university leaders with the vision to see the big picture in higher education. So, this year, UT will triple the size of its scoreboard, giving us a whopping 134-foot by 55- foot, high-definition, LED visual in the south end-zone. That’s 7,370 square feet – bigger than a basketball court… and the biggest scoreboard in the world… We’re #1! We’re #1!
The chief advantage of this $8 million project is that fans in the stadium will now be able to see the game on this monster screen, just as if they were at home watching it on TV. Plus, the scoreboard and new sound system that comes with it will be able to give the crowd a full dose of commercials throughout the game – again, just like television.
That’s not all the good news from our educational leaders, either. UT officials also announced that they will spend $150 million next year to reconfigure the north end zone, adding luxury suites and seats to face our big new scoreboard. “It’s going to be pretty special,” says one official.
This is Jim Hightower saying… Never mind that UT’s football players have one of the worst graduation rates in the country – and never mind that some of UT’s academic needs are going unfunded – our football fans will be able to see the players on the world’s biggest scoreboard. After all, isn’t that what higher education is about?
Sources:
“That’s one big Bevo of a scorecard,” Austin American-Statesman, May 10, 2006.
“It’s all about athletics,” Austin American Statesman, May 10, 2006.
“Pierce, Bob. Letter,” Austin American Statesman, May 19, 2006.