Behind The Plate: Wrigley Field's New Video Board
(CBS) -- It stands 95 feet high and is 42 feet wide and this season, it's Wrigley Field's crown jewel. The Chicago Cubs new video board has been a long time in the making.
"This is the first phase of our 1060 project. The video board was always slated to be in the first phase," said Alison Miller, senior director of marketing for the Chicago Cubs. "It's really been something we've been talking to our fans about the last three years."
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What you might not know is that it takes up to 20 people to run the video board show each game. A whole room full of people plus a trailer across the street are each responsible for making sure the new video board is running properly.
"Our front row has our stats operator, next to them is our audio operator," points out Matt Romito, Wrigley Field video board operations manager. "Everyone to a technical director, to a director, a character generator operator, someone dedicated just to keeping score. It takes a lot of people to put on a show like this."
Romito produces each game.
"We have a very detailed run of shows each game," he said.
What will you see on the video board?
"The top thing is replays, second is stats, fans said they want to know about Cubs history, the Bears used to play at Wrigley Field, so we've gone back to work with different folks to get some old footage and content that our fans will appreciate seeing," said Miller.
But not to worry, Miller says for the traditionalists, the green panel manual scoreboard is still there doing its job.
"The video board is never meant to upstage the scoreboard. The scoreboard is still the tradition and the important part of Wrigley for us. You'll notice there is no score on the video board. The video board is meant to blend into the park and enhance the baseball experience."
It's soon game time and in between innings, it's show time.
"It's our time to shine," said Romito. He dons the headset and starts director the show.
"And coming in 3,2,1....go cameras, go organ."
Romito says they'll be rolling out more content and surprises throughout the season.
"What you're seeing now is not a finished product. We have another couple boards coming. We want to tweak things. We want to show people everything we can possibly show them. It's a factor of time and feeling it out and seeing what is the best content that fans want."
A second video board will be ready in right field by the All Star break.
