What Illinois’s $20M Jumbotron Says About the Future of CFB Stadiums

When Illinois installed a new video board at Gies Memorial Stadium in January, it became the largest scoreboard in college football.

The 16 million-pixel display stands 69 feet high by 250 feet wide, and it—along with 15 other new LED screens installed at Gies—cost the school $20,938,463, according to documents obtained by Front Office Sports. The expense was funded by a $100 million donation from alum Larry Gies Jr. Illinois did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In a press release announcing the installation at Illinois, Daktronics—the South Dakota-based company that built it—stood the screen up against comparable displays at professional stadiums: It “would be the fifth-largest display in professional football. It is roughly the same size as the main outfield display at Citi Field in New York and 3.4 times the size of the main display at Soldier Field in Chicago.”

At the company’s investor day in April, Daktronics board chair Andrew Siegel told the audience “When you look up, we want you to see Daktronics.”

Beyond sports, the company builds and services signage at airports, gas stations, on the side of buildings such as in Times Square, and pretty much everywhere else you might find an LED digital display.

Those screens, while intended to engage, are not necessarily built to be a main attraction. But at sporting events, the screens are meant to draw you in—and they just keep growing.

“I think today, when you go to a sporting event, people want to see replay. It’s also a revenue-generating opportunity,” Jay Parker, Daktronics’ VP of live events and spectaculars, the category that includes college and pro sports, said during an investor day Q&A. The larger the screens, the more room for advertisers to gain visibility in front of thousands of fans at one time.

At the University of Oregon, where Daktronics installed a 46-by-180-foot display in 2020, the school’s board of trustees approved up to $12 million for video board and sound system upgrades at Autzen Stadium. Daktronics completed the work for $11,554,370, according to documents obtained by . At the time, it was the largest display in college football.