The Denver Broncos will gentle up the scoreboard at Empower Area at Mile Excessive like by no means earlier than this season — even when the Sean Payton/Russell Wilson pairing doesn’t produce a torrent of factors.
The staff unveiled its mammoth new scoreboard Friday, a day earlier than the Broncos play their preseason finale towards the Los Angeles Rams.
The scoreboard is 225 toes large and 72 toes excessive, making it the tallest in North America and 70% bigger than the previous scoreboard. General, it’s the fifth-largest scoreboard within the NFL.
It’s the crown jewel of a $100 million offseason improve to the 23-year-old stadium, though it doesn’t essentially assure the staff received’t bolt for the suburbs each time a brand new stadium is required.
Requested how a lot of the $100 million went to the scoreboard itself, staff President Damini Leech stated, “a good chunk.”
Leech stated the staff carried out wind assessments for security functions on the brand new scoreboard within the south stands the place the previous one used to face. The Broncos could have spend their first few video games determining how a lot, if in any respect, the larger board impacts area purpose makes an attempt.
Different upgrades embrace cashless concessions, three-dimensional nook videoboards on the concourses and 130 refurbished luxurious suites.
Additionally, staff co-owner Carrie Walton-Penner had 4 native artists commissioned to color huge murals all through the stadium, together with one by the professional store that depicts all of the Broncos within the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame with room so as to add Randy Gradishar if the chief of the “Orange Crush” protection of the Seventies is elected in January. Gradishar is among the senior nominees and desires 80% of the vote to get in.
As for the product on the sector, the Broncos dedicated almost $250 million in free company to improve the roster after a 5-12 end final season that led to yet one more teaching change. The Walton-Penner possession group not too long ago celebrated the one-year anniversary of its $4.65 billion buy of the franchise.
The Broncos open the common season on Sept. 10 in Denver towards the Las Vegas Raiders.