Massive Display Upgrades Bring the Heat as 2023 Baseball Season Begins

If you’ve been thirsting for some baseball action, this month must have felt like getting doused by a cooler full of your favorite sports drink as all 30 major league teams have finally been in action! In my biased opinion, the best part of all these games is that Daktronics installed 47 displays totaling more than 44,000 square feet at stadiums around the country to support the experience for baseball fans.

And before the season, 7 displays were installed for Spring Training facilities totaling more than 5,500 square feet.

So where can you find these new displays? Minnesota. Philadelphia. Seattle. Denver. San Diego. Detroit. Arizona.

BIG Improvements

Starting closest to our corporate headquarters, the Minnesota Twins are set to show off 22 new LED displays totaling more than 23,000 square feet! That’s a LOT of LED displays in one place!

The main display will be HDR-capable and increase in size by 75% over the previous main display. Even the auxiliary display in right field is 60% larger than before. Everywhere you look at Target Field, you’ll find digital content on digital display from Daktronics.

Another sizeable installation took place in Philadelphia where the Phillies now have one of the largest main video displays in all of baseball. This MASSIVE outfield display measures in at 85 feet high by 151 feet wide – 77% larger than the previous display. It’s 4K and HDR-capable as well. With this project, our Creative Services team produced digital content and animations to bring the display to life for fans.

Surrounding Fans in Digital Displays

Baseball teams know fans aren’t ONLY looking at the big video displays. They know fans want stats, data, information – everything they can get at home. And while the main display can share that info, other displays around the ballpark can show it non-stop for fans to enjoy.

Starting in Seattle, the Mariners added 10 displays totaling more than 5,600 square feet in ribbon, backstop and outfield displays. In the right field gap, a “Hit It Here” display shines bright to add an extra element to the ballgame experience.

The Twins installed 11 ribbon displays and the Arizona Diamondbacks added 2 ribbon displays to deliver additional stats and graphics for their fan bases.

In Denver, the Rockies added 4 backstop displays and a “Mountain Ranch” auxiliary display to deliver more sponsorship revenue and bring more content opportunities to their ballpark and fans.

Similarly, the San Diego Padres added a ribbon display to highlight their sponsors while also engaging their fans with new technology for moments of exclusivity.

Welcoming fans to the ballpark and ensuring they get to their seats quickly and easily is another aspect where digital signage flourishes. The Detroit Tigers know this all too well as at the very end of the 2022 season, they added 5 entrance displays to Comerica Park. The 2023 season will be their first season in use for the team as they welcome their fans to the ballpark.

Dugout Displays

The 2023 season is also ripe with new trends in LED displays for baseball as two of these clubs have added dugout displays to their repertoire. The Minnesota Twins and Seattle Mariners added long, narrow, ribbon-style displays along the front face of the upper part of their dugouts. These displays are just more than half a foot tall and run the length of the dugouts to show additional team branding and light up in coordination with the rest of the displays in the ballpark for a spectacle that fans can enjoy.

Taking Full Control

Making these massive displays come to life for every game, an integrated, powerful, easy-to-use control solution is extremely important! That’s why the St. Louis Cardinals turned to Daktronics for a complete control upgrade ahead of the 2023 season. Show Control’s always advancing game-day production software brings back-end capabilities to deliver the wow-factor for Cardinals fans. The system is continually bringing additional elements to the fans while also making the lives of production professionals easier.

The Mariners also added to their control capabilities with Daktronics in 2023. This includes Show Control with Camino and the new All Sport Pro Baseball offering to ensure all the basic baseball information is shown for fans to follow along with the game.

Spring Training

Before the season started, Spring Training was getting teams and fans ready for the real thing. That includes Sloan Park and Tempe Diablo Stadium, Spring Training home to the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels, respectively.

Sloan Park unveiled a new main video display measuring 30 feet high by 60 feet wide to engage fans in all the action leading up to the regular season.

Tempe Diablo Stadium, on the other hand, welcomed fans and appealed to the crowds of people passing by with an exterior billboard measuring more than 13 feet high by 47 feet wide. This was used to promote the upcoming games and recap game scores as well as generate revenue through sponsorships and branding messages.

When you add it all up – 54 displays totaling nearly 50,000 square feet – that’s a lot of new stuff for both Spring Training and the regular season of baseball in one year! As always, Daktronics is innovating products and pushing the envelope for those baseball teams to continually deliver the best products to inform and engage audiences at live events.