Notre Dame Stadium video board will allow Fighting Irish to see new revenue stream
For the first time, Notre Dame Stadium will have a “jumbotron.” On top of an enhanced game day experience, that means that Fighting Irish football is about to bring in even more revenue.
The most lucrative independent FBS football program in the nation is about to bring its game day facility into the 21st century with the addition of a Notre Dame Stadium video board.
According to a press release from ANC, who has done video board projects for professional sport entertainment organizations like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Dodgers, the size and quality of the board at Notre Dame Stadium will be impressive.
ANC says that the 10mm main display will be 54 feet high and about 95 1/2 feet wide with over 4.7 million physical pixels. That boasts not only becoming the largest 10mm surface mount display in all of college football but also will become the display with the most physical pixels among all NCAA outdoor venues.
There will also be ribbon boards covering the bowl and smaller displays in several distinct parts of the stadium. There was no timetable given for completion of the project.
When it is complete, it will augment the experience of Fighting Irish football for fans and players alike. Creating emotion is one of the best ways to make an experience memorable, and the combination of well-produced audio and visual elements that video boards allow is a great way to do that.
There’s more to this project than just revving up the crowd, however.
The video board will allow Notre Dame to sell video ads during all the events held inside the stadium. Fighting Irish football games still command a premium price when it comes to media, as demonstrated by its television rights contract with NBC that pays $15 million annually. Video ads during football games are just the beginning of the new monetization.
The video board will make Notre Dame Stadium itself very attractive to event promoters and other sport entertainment companies. Concerts and other non-sport related entertainment could be held in the stadium, allowing Notre Dame to see revenue during the football off-season. Additionally, sports events like the NHL Winter Classic become a possibility as well.
Finally, Notre Dame Stadium will become more attractive to sponsors which might seek to buy the naming rights to the stadium. While it’s uncertain whether or not Notre Dame would seek to sell those rights, one of the Fighting Irish’s annual football opponents has already shown the potential value in that transaction. USC is now getting $4.7 million annually in average value from its deal for the naming rights to the L.A. Coliseum.
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The video board will allow fans to see footage from classic Notre Dame football days and recent highlights in addition to a myriad of other video content. More importantly, however, it will allow the university to see even more dollar signs.