Polar Park, the home of the Worcester Red Sox, will have full-color videoboards in left field and right-center field, as well as an electronic alphanumeric scoreboard on the Worcester Wall in right field, plus a pair of LED matrix boards behind first and third base.
All the video boards at the new home of the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox will be supplied and integrated by ANC.
ANC also provides the videoboards for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
At Polar Park, the left field board will be 40 feet high and 70 feet long, down the left field line, and will primarily focus on the hitter and lineups during innings of Worcester Red Sox games.
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The right-centerfield board, on the FlexCon Porch, is 11 ½ feet high and 41 feet long. During innings, it will primarily be a pitchers’ board, focusing on the speed of pitch, type of pitch, and pitch count.
Between innings, it will often be a Red Sox board, providing information about the parent club, including updates on games when played concurrently.
Keeping fans informed about essential game information as they circumnavigate the park, LED color matrix boards behind first base and third base will be 2 ½ feet high and 60 feet long. Each will provide the count, the score, the inning and more.
More About Polar Park Video Boards
In addition to providing statistical information and notes about the players, the videoboards will provide entertainment pregame, postgame, and between innings of WooSox games (as well as during many other events at the year-round venue).
The club is also planning interactive programming that will further connect fans to the players and to each other. The WooSox will use ANC’s proprietary scoring system that is also used in Major League Baseball.
“We will use technology to inform, entertain, and involve fans even more in the Polar Park experience,” said Larry Lucchino, principal owner and chairman of the WooSox. “In a city known for its inventions—from modern rocketry to the monkey wrench—we hope to write the next chapter of ballpark presentation.”
Lucchino and WooSox president Charles Steinberg first introduced a pitchers’ board to fans of Major League Baseball 25 years ago when they were with the San Diego Padres.
When they joined the Boston Red Sox in 2002, they were among those who overhauled the electronic scoreboard system (including the creation of a pitchers’ board) while preserving and enhancing the manually operated iconic scoreboard on the Green Monster.
The addition of video boards “reflects our pursuit of a technologically advanced ballpark with an integrated system of five scoreboards, videoboards, and LED matrix boards,” said Worcester city manager Ed Augustus, Jr.
“This is going to be a great ballpark for baseball fans and a great venue of which the city of Worcester can be proud,” he said.
The scoreboard affixed to the Worcester Wall is electronic and will be operated in conjunction with the other boards from the communications control room in the DCU Club. Patrons and visitors on Polar Park Tours can see the operation live.
A Red Sox partner since 1999, ANC provided Fenway Park’s modern videoboard system in 2011.
In addition to designing and integrating the new display network at Polar Park, ANC will install home plate rotational signage, create in-game display content and provide game-day technical support.
“The entire Red Sox organization is steeped in history, driven by the best fans in baseball,” said ANC chief revenue officer Brad Brockhaug. “It was our honor to bring our creative energy to Polar Park so a new generation of fans can enjoy the love of the game.”
