Facility Friday: Buffaloes Video Board, Pacers G League Arena, Grand Rapids Soccer Stadium

The Colorado Buffaloes announced Wednesday that construction on a new $15 million video board project on the south end of Folsom Field is set to begin in January. The scoreboard will be ready for the 2024 season. 

The new board will be more than five times the surface area of the old board.

The ribbon board below the video board will also be significantly expanded, stretching from the north end of the club level on the east side around the bowl to Balch Fieldhouse on the southwest side, more than 1,000 feet from the top of section 203 to the top of section 220.

The new board will measure 130 feet wide by 36 feet high, eight feet taller than the current board and 98 feet wider, or about the same width of the current ribbon board under the current video board, which measures 32 feet by 28 feet. 

The board will go from being one of the smallest in the Power 5 conferences to above the national average of all schools within those conferences.

The majority of the cost of the project will go into the steel infrastructure to support the new video board, which will include four new columns running from the bottom of the board to the ground around the south side of the stadium.

Funding is ongoing for the project. Construction is expected to be finished for CU's season opener Aug. 31, 2024, against North Dakota State.  [CUBuffs]

In Noblesville, Ind., officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Noblesville Events Center, the future home of the Pacers G League franchise at Innovation Mile.

The 3,400-seat, 120,000-square-foot aena will be the home to the second most prominent men’s basketball league in the world. The venue will also host community events, conferences, entertainment and other sporting events.

The new arena is anticipated to open during the 2025-2026 season, and the G League team will play at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in the interim.

The NBA G League is the NBA’s official minor league, preparing players, coaches, officials, trainers, and front-office staff for the NBA while acting as the league’s research and development laboratory. Featuring 31 teams — 29 with one-to-one affiliations with NBA franchises — the league offers elite professional basketball at an affordable price in a fun, family-friendly atmosphere. NBA G League Ignite also plays against G League competition. 

Innovation Mile encompasses close to 600 acres and fronts Interstate 69. It is a work, live, play, engage, and learn campus designed to drive sustainable economic growth in Noblesville. [City of Noblesville]

New preliminary renderings of a proposed Grand Rapids soccer stadium show a large venue with the capacity to hold thousands of visitors, Crain’s Grand Rapids has confirmed. The renderings are meant to show an example of what the venue might look like. 

One rendering shows the stadium appearing adjacent to the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids, a site that local officials previously confirmed was under consideration.

The stadium appears situated just east and north of the YMCA, along Mt. Vernon Avenue NW across the Grand River from downtown. A city-owned commuter parking lot is currently located on the property.

A south-end entrance to the stadium appears to replace a Big Boy restaurant currently on the site, per the drawings.

The renderings are the latest update on the stadium project, which has taken incremental steps forward through public-private agreements and attempts to secure public financing. There is not an estimated timeline on the project. 

The CAA’s capital budget for fiscal year 2024 does not include funding for the soccer stadium. A location for the soccer stadium has not yet been finalized, but officials are “very close” to announcing where it would be. 

Grand Action 2.0 is working to secure a lead donor for the project. [Crainsgrandrapids.com]

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