Venue News: Reliant Stadium Could Add Video Board for Super Bowl Bid; Packers Secure Loan for Further Lambeau Expansion

Compiled by Karen Hogan, Associate Editor, Sports Video Group

When fans attend the Texans’ home games in 2013, their experience could be enhanced by a new state-of-the-art scoreboard at Reliant Stadium. The new scoreboard, which would offer higher-definition images, will cost anywhere from $10 million to $30 million and could be part of improvements at Reliant Stadium that enhance Houston’s chances of landing Super Bowl LI. Last week, Houston became one of two finalists for the 2017 Super Bowl. The competition will be South Florida or San Francisco — the city that loses the vote for Super Bowl L…

…A $58 million loan from the National Football League completes financing of the $143 million expansion of Lambeau Field. The league approved the loan to the Green Bay Packers last week during the owners’ meeting in Chicago. The Packers are paying for the current expansion with $64 million from a stock sale last winter, the $58 million from the NFL, and $21 million from the Green Bay/Brown County Professional Football Stadium District. The Packers are adding more than 6,500 seats to the stadium. The expansion also includes high-definition scoreboards, a sound system, a viewing deck above the north end zone, and new north and south end zone entrances. New seats in the south end zone will be stadium-style chairs with backs and arm rests, while a lesser number, where the Miller Lite End Zone Party Deck is in the north end zone, will be benches. The team plans a second phase of construction at Lambeau to begin possibly next year…

…Nicholas Stracick, CEO and president of the Greater Buffalo Sports and Entertainment Complex, unveiled a proposal on Tuesday to build a $1.4 billion waterfront sports and entertainment facility that would include a 70,000-plus-seat, retractable-roofed stadium to one day serve as the Bills’ new home. In making a presentation to a city council committee, Stracick said his plan has the potential to change the Buffalo’s rust-belt image and preserve the Bills long-term future in western New York. Stracick’s company has already spent about $1 million in hiring a leading sports facility architectural firm, Dallas-based HKS Design, to design a site plan. The next step is having the city acquire a 400-acre plot of land lining the outer harbor just south of downtown. The land is currently controlled by the region’s transportation authority. Once that’s approved, Stracick then intends to approach Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the Bills, and the NFL.

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