by. Patrick Murphy
For many Philadelphia Phillies fans, the team’s run to the World Series this past October was something special. Between the season feeling like it was over with a week to go and not making the playoffs since 2011, there was plenty of doubt. That doubt was followed by Bryce Harper blasting homers and the city rallying around a team that was not supposed to make it as far as they did.
Just like that the Phillies were back to selling out Citizens Bank Park and it never felt so good to see those rally towels flying in the air again. Amongst the craziness of the team’s playoff run, there was one thing every Phillies fan wanted, a ticket. For many, the biggest problem was the demand for tickets causing the prices to boom. Per ticket reseller, TicketIQ, the ticket prices for Phillies games reached the second-highest price for any single championship game in the last 10 years. I remember seeing this statistic a few months ago and thinking to myself, “it’s officially Red October.”
Most of us know how the rest goes. After one of the best runs the city had seen in recent times, it finally ended in late October when the team fell to the Astros after 6 games. While the defeat still sits inside many Phillies fans, it also sparked some nostalgia of the days when the Phillies were at the top of baseball.
Throughout the off-season there were many questions to be asked of what direction the team goes after losing in the World Series and the Phillies’ management responded by signing MLB All-Star Trea Turner for 300 million dollars over 11 years. To me, this signing meant one thing; there are big things ahead.
The biggest of those things, which you may already know about, was the Phillies announcing plans at the end of the season to tear down their scoreboard and install something bigger and better. Standing 152-feet wide by 86-feet tall, Citizens Bank Park will now be home to the one of the largest video boards in all of baseball. The new Phanavision is 77% larger than the one it replaced making the in-stadium experience even more spectacular. According to the Phillies, the 4K board’s “high-dynamic range system uses nearly 11.6 million pixels with 10 millimeter pixel spacing to deliver richer colors and superb clarity.” The team said fans will also be able to experience better viewing angles and short distance viewing far better than they were able to before.
What does this mean for media?
Many things are shifting from static to digital within the media world and the Phillies new scoreboard is following suit. With the board becoming fully digital, it creates opportunities for the Phillies to rotate their advertisers more frequently throughout each game and the entire season. In addition, the bright lights and size of the scoreboard will allow advertisers to feel like they are being seen from all parts of the stadium.
For local businesses, the Phillies scoreboard could be a great opportunity to get in front of those from the Philadelphia area. Phillies games are a great place to reach a wide demographic of people and with boosted ticket sales there will only be more and more eyes on the advertisements within the stadium.
Something many advertisers have probably not thought about is that due to the size of the board, they are also getting attention from cars driving by on I-95 and from those flying in or out of the Philadelphia International Airport. Recent social media pictures have gone viral from each perspective but it is truly shocking to see how clear and easy to read the board is from the sky.
It is an exciting time for the Phillies as a franchise as all things seem to be trending up. While they have not been off to a good start, many Phillies fans will be hoping that their new star player and new scoreboard can fuel them to another late post-season run.