Lighting Up Professional Football Stadiums for the 2019 Season

Training camps are well underway. Preseason games are taking place. You can almost smell the NFL’s regular season, it’s that close. Only a few more days before a leather, oblong ball is kicked off and meaningful football games begin.

In 2019, Daktronics is once again playing a large part in stadiums informing and entertaining their fanbase with 23 LED display installations for seven teams totaling more than 15,500 square feet.

Most fans probably can’t remember the last game they attended without a large-screen video display sharing scores, stats and replays. One of the biggest installation this year for the company was delivered to Arrowhead Stadium.

The Kansas City Chiefs increased the resolution of their west end zone display by more than 2.5 times with a new 10-millimeter SMD LED display. It’s the first HDR-capable display in the NFL and features more than 5 million LEDs.

“We continuously look at ways that we can improve the fan experience at Arrowhead Stadium, and adopting new technology is one of the avenues we can use to accomplish that,” Chiefs President Mark Donovan said. “Daktronics has been an important long-term partner for us at Arrowhead Stadium for game days and non-football events. The updates their team has made to our video board and control room mean that our new scoreboard will provide our fans and guests the best display quality for live video, replays and other content while maintaining the iconic size and shape of our original video board.”

Another big installation in 2019, the longest 360-degree ribbon display installation at Hard Rock Stadium for the Miami Dolphins. The display measures 3.5 feet high by 2,105 feet wide as it wraps around the entire seating fascia of the facility and integrates with the existing Daktronics LED video displays in the four corners of the stadium, two ribbon displays and the exterior video board marquee to create an entertainment destination for their fans.

The upgrades to Hard Rock Stadium come prior to the venue hosting the biggest football game of the season on February 2, 2020, as well as the college football championship in 2021.

Other Daktronics installations in 2019 include the Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns,  Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers. These are part of the 400+ displays the company has installed over the years that are currently in use at professional football facilities. The total square footage of all these displays comes to more than 400,000!

The trend of this year’s installations focuses on the addition of narrow pixel pitch displays. The Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns installed a combined 10 displays – three with 1.5-millimeter line spacing and seven with 1.9-millimeter line spacing. The Browns are using their display as a press conference backdrop while the Packers are adding to the aesthetics and experience of their stadium and entertainment district with nine video walls.

Aside from LED displays, our control systems and creative services will be in use at some stadiums across the league. MetLife Stadium, home to the New York Giants and New York Jets, received an upgraded control system for this season.

Our Creative Services team has been busy creating digital content for teams to use on their displays, including the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Giants, New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Redskins. Our services team is also providing event support for 16 of 32 teams in 2019 – more information on services in this podcast episode.

This year, there are also four international games being played at Daktronics-equipped venues. Two games will be held at Wembley Stadium and two games at newly-constructed Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, both in London.

So, if you’re headed to a game this year, we’ve got you covered with our installations pretty much anywhere you go – from London to Cleveland, from New York to Dallas, from Denver to Tampa. Share your experiences on social media using the hashtag #DakPro!