Utah athletic director Chris Hill has had his sights set on a new video board for years, and with the current one basically falling apart, getting a new one approved by the Board of Trustees made it even more of a priority.
Yesterday, the board approved a plan that would put $13.5 million towards a new video board and sound system at Rice-Eccles stadium and as long as the Regents approve the plans later this week, the project will go out to bidders. The video board will cost around $8.6 million while the sound system upgrades will run just shy of $5 million.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, plans are the video board to be big. Really big, actually. The estimated dimensions are 89 feet tall by 118 feet wide, putting the square footage at 10,502. To put that in perspective, Auburn is home to the largest video board of any college stadium and the square footage on that one is 10,830.
"If you're going to invest in a sound system that is going to last a long time, why don't we go to what is becoming the best for fans and the best for people outside the stadium?" Hill told the Salt Lake Tribune.
The giant board would be a major upgrade to Rice-Eccles, as the current one that was placed there in 2003 sits at just 38 feet wide by 23 feet tall, or about 850 square feet.
The new video board and sound system should be in place during the summer of 2016.
Read more on the project here, or see more on the plans from Utah below.