SoFi Stadium is striking for many different reasons, but the signature element of the opulent new home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers hangs 122 feet above the playing field.
That would be the world's first dual-sided, center-hung videoboard, which marks another evolution in scoreboard development and how fans consume information during games.
The videoboard at AT&T Stadium, fittingly nicknamed “JerryTron” after Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, tried to bring an arena experience at a much larger scale to a stadium. The “Haloboard” at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium was the first 360-degree board at a stadium when it opened in 2017.
The playing field at SoFi Stadium, the future home for the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers NFL football teams, is shown Friday, Sept. 4, 2020, in Inglewood, Calif. Stan Kroenke got permission to bring pro football back to Los Angeles because the Rams owner vowed to build an NFL palace and a West Coast hub for the league. Lavish, ultramodern SoFi Stadium certainly appears to live up to those promises as it opens its doors this week, even if fans can't enjoy it right away. (AP PhotoMarcio Jose Sanchez)
Three years later, this board has upped the ante. SoFi Stadium hosts its first game Sunday when the Rams welcome the Dallas Cowboys.
All the videobard needs now is a cool new nickname. Up until recently it was called the Oculus, until there started to be some confusion with the virtual reality company that has the same name.
Pete Soto, the Chargers' vice president of fan experience and Bolt Productions, might have come the closest to coining something that could stick when he called it “The Mothership."
“Everyone was interested in taking it to the next level. It is connected to the architecture and allows us to create this canvas for digital immersion,” said Lance Evans, the stadium’s main architect from design firm HKS. “The way that the videoboard interacts as you walk around the venue is the beautiful piece of the design. You always feel like you are connected to it but it doesn’t scream for your attention.
The way that we’ve created the elliptical shape with the aperture that allows light to flow through — it is a complementary shape and form."
SoFi Stadium's videoboard is the largest ever created, with 70,000 square feet of digital LED space. It is also the first and only board that is capable of 4k video from end to end.
At 2.2. million pounds, it took nearly six months to construct and raise. The structure is 120 yards long and the largest panels are 40 feet tall.
The videoboard was a large part of renderings of the stadium. While the renderings were very accurate to real life, the size of it still is striking.
“The accuracy gives you a sense of deja vu. The one thing the renderings couldn’t reflect is when you stand in this building, it feels like this indoor-outdoor experience,” said Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff.
Samsung manufactured the video display, making this the fourth NFL stadium where they have videoboards. Mark Quiroz, Samsung's vice president for product marketing, said one of the biggest challenges was trying to make sure the construction could take place while everything else was going on around the complex.
In the three months since the board was lifted, it has been mainly testing to make sure the display was consistent throughout all seating levels.
“We want that screen to look as perfect as it can be along with there being a perfect balance,” he said.
When it comes to what can go on the board, there really aren't any limits. Soto worked with the “Haloboard” in Atlanta for two years before joining the Chargers last year. He sat in seats at different levels and tested many different formats.
The size of the board allows for multiple feeds where fantasy stats can be showed along with instant replays, live action or multiple events. There also can be the possibility of showing other games.
“It is an amazing technology. Probably more than what we expected,” Soto said. “When you look at the quality and the clarity and the color, it is phenomenal. It really is one in a million.”
While fans aren't allowed into Rams or Chargers games for the foreseeable future because of the coronavirus pandemic, both teams will be able to put the board through many different tests to come up with the best presentation format.
But there is one group who will be able to see it this season — the players.
“The video board is dope, just the way it circles the whole field. It’s going to be exciting and hard not to watch," Chargers receiver Keenan Allen said.
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SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) — Bruce Meyer was promoted to interim executive director of the baseball players’ association on Wednesday, a day after Tony Clark’s forced resignation.
It was a move for continuity ahead of the likely start in April of what figures to be contentious collective bargaining with team owners.
Matt Nussbaum was promoted to interim deputy executive director from general counsel.
The decisions were made by the Major League Baseball Players Association executive board during an online meeting. Both votes were unanimous.
A 64-year-old veteran labor lawyer, Meyer joined the union staff in 2018 and led negotiations through a 99-day lockout that led to a five-year agreement in March 2022. The deal barely avoided what would have been the first loss of regular-season games since 1995. He was promoted to deputy executive director in July 2022.
Meyer spent 30 years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges before joining the NHL Players Association in 2016 as senior director of collective bargaining, policy and legal.
Three members of the union’s eight-man executive subcommittee, Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Ian Happ, were among the players who in March 2024 advocated for the ouster of Meyer in an effort led by former union lawyer Harry Marino. Clark backed Meyer, the effort failed and those three players were dropped off the subcommittee that December.
The subcommittee voted 8-0 against approving the 2022 labor contract and Meyer had advocated pushing management for a deal more favorable to the union. Team player representatives, the overall group supervising negotiations, voted 26-4 in favor, leaving the overall ballot at 26-12 for ratification.
The current subcommittee includes Chris Bassitt, Jake Cronenworth, Pete Fairbanks, Cedric Mullins, Marcus Semien, Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal and Brent Suter.
A former All-Star first baseman who headed the union since 2013, Clark resigned Tuesday just months ahead of the expected start of bargaining for a labor contract to replace the deal that expires Dec. 1.
He was asked to resign by the union’s eight-man executive subcommittee after an investigation by the union’s outside counsel discovered evidence Clark had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, a union employee since 2023, a person familiar with the union’s deliberations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that detail was not announced.
“The information that really led to this came out within the last ... 72 hours or so,” Meyer said earlier Wednesday. “So this is not something that has been kind of sat on. When the information came out, the players on the subcommittee made their feelings known. And Tony, to his credit, he’s always been about the players first and Tony decided to take the action he did in the interest of the players.”
Clark did not respond to a text message seeking comment.
The start of the annual tour of spring training camps by union officials was pushed back a day and began Wednesday with the Kansas City Royals.
“Just on a personal level I think we’re all fairly devastated by things that have happened in the last 48, 72 hours,” Meyer said. “I’m not going to go beyond that in terms of personal feelings, but it’s fair to say that we were all personally upset, concerned about Tony. But I think this was something that the players determined had to happen at this particular point in time.”
Meyer, hired by Clark in 2018, headed the 2021-22 negotiations that led to an agreement on March 10 that ended a 99-day lockout. Meyer was promoted to deputy executive director in July 2022.
“I don’t anticipate that anybody’s going to be leading negotiations other than me,” Meyer said.
Clark’s departure took place during a probe by the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, into OneTeam Partners, a licensing company founded by the union, the NFL Players Association and RedBird Capital Partners in 2019.
“There have been some issues hanging over, as you know, and in some respects it’s good to get them out of the way sooner rather than later,” Meyer said.
Meyer said the union’s entire executive board of 72 players was eligible to vote for executive director: the executive subcommittee, 30 major league team player representatives and 34 minor leaguers, who have been represented by the union since 2022.
MLB appears on track to propose a salary cap, which possibly could lead to a work stoppage that causes regular-season games to be canceled for the first time since 1995.
“We don’t expect anything to change in terms of bargaining,” Meyer said. “We’ve been preparing for bargaining for years. Players have been preparing. Players know what’s coming. At the end of the day leadership is important and leadership comes and goes, but what remains is the players. At the end of the day, it’s the players who determine the direction of the union. At the end of the day, it’s the players who determine our priorities and bargaining. Those priorities obviously have not changed and will not change.”
The union said it will resist a salary cap.
“Our position and the historic position of this union for decades on a salary cap is well known,” Meyer said. “It’s the ultimate restriction. It’s something that owners in all the sports have wanted more than anything and in baseball in particular there’s a reason for that, because it’s good for them and not good for players.”
Meyer spent 30 years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges before joining the NHL Players Association in 2016 as senior director of collective bargaining, policy and legal.
He wouldn’t directly address whether the union intends to restrict the hiring of family members.
“I think it’s fair to say there are issues that will be addressed,” Meyer said. “There are various issues that will be evaluated, re-evaluated with the advice of counsel and, as always, at the direction of players.”
Nussbaum, 47, succeeded Ian Penny as general counsel in July 2022. He was hired by the union in 2011 as staff counsel.
Blum reported from New York.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE - Major League Baseball Players Association Senior Director, Collective Bargaining & Legal, Bruce Meyer answers a question at a news conference in their offices in New York, March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark answers a question during a news conference in New York on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
