OCEAN CITY — Ocean City will spend a little more than $100,000 for a new scoreboard at Carey Stadium.
On May 8, City Council approved a contract through the National Joint Powers Alliance for a 7’11” tall by 18-foot wide Daktronics live video display and a 3-foot by 18-foot arch truss to go atop it to carry the lettering for the stadium.
The cost for the scoreboard is $94,635 and another $7,481 for the arch. Add in the shipping and the total comes to $106,746.
Under the contract, the city is responsible for getting rid of the old scoreboard and physically installing the new one and providing the power supply. Daktronics will set up the control system and software, do maintenance training during the installation and test the scoreboard.
Carey Stadium, home of Ocean City High School’s Red Raider football team and multiple other sports, has dealt with faulty scoreboards for years.
In fall 2022, Mayor Jay Gillian proposed a roughly $2 million, two-sided scoreboard that could be used for multiple events, not just the sports inside the stadium, but also for concerts or movie nights. One side would have faced the stadium and the other would have faced the boardwalk.
The idea at the time was to work to get advertising revenue to pay off the investment in less than 10 years, but the project did not pan out.
Aside from the Red Raider football team, other sports use the facility including boys and girls lacrosse and soccer, field hockey and track and field. It also is the home for a three-day football tournament at the end of summer and additional events.
Before the contract for the scoreboard was approved in council’s consent agenda without any discussion last week, the mayor noted the scoreboard that is now at Carey Stadium — and was installed a few years ago to replace an aging, faulty scoreboard — would be moved to the Tennessee Avenue sports complex to replace the broken and outdated scoreboard there.
There are two playing fields at the complex. The scoreboard will face the artificial turf field the city installed last year and is used primarily for girls high school sports including soccer and lacrosse, but sees action from high school boys teams and other sports.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff