UVA’s Scott Stadium getting major upgrade

University of Virginia football fans will have a big reason to be excited about attending games at Scott Stadium next year.

We’re talking really, really big.

U.Va.‘s Board of Visitors has approved a new video screen for the 60,000-seat stadium that will more than triple the size of the current board.

The new $2.4 million board will be installed in time for the kickoff of the Cavaliers’ fall 2009 schedule.

The bigger, better and brighter board will be paid for by CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, which has a 10-year, $29 million multimedia agreement with the university’s athletics department. As part of the deal, CBS committed to providing new video boards at UVa’s KlCckner Stadium, Davenport Field and Scott Stadium by Aug. 15, 2009.

The football stadium’s new video board will be 32 feet by 57 feet and will have a substantially higher resolution than the current board. Built in 1998, the existing screen is 21 feet by 28 feet.

By expanding the so-called Hoo Vision’s size, U.Va. athletics will have additional space for lucrative advertising, as well as spots for statistics during games. Plus, school officials said, it’ll offer fans an improved view of instant replays, the “Adventures of Cav-Man,“ live in-game footage and more.

“It’ll give the fans a better shot of the action,“ he said.

The screen’s resolution will exceed the average stadium’s Jumbotron picture, said Randy Dobrinska, director of project management for CBS Outdoor Digital. Using LED technology, the screen’s images will have 20 millimeters between pixels. A typical arena’s screen has 25 millimeters between pixels, he said.