Manatee High football stadium in line for jumbo video board

BRADENTON -- Manatee High's football stadium is getting tweaked, if no roadblocks stymie the plan.

The Hurricanes are set to unveil a new video screen that is equipped with a Bose sound system as an added feature for Hawkins Stadium this fall, pending school board approval.

"Realistically, we're probably looking at the August meeting, whatever date that is," Manatee athletic director Jason Montgomery said.

The structure would measure 42-by-31 feet, with just the video screen tallying a 15-by-28 foot area.

The plan is to have it erected in the left corner behind the same end zone that hoists the current scoreboard on the right-hand corner of the field.

"It'll have all the functioning capabilities that you expect," Montgomery said. "It's kind of the analogy is like a really nice small college set up. You'll have video graphic capabilities. If you want to have the little referee come out and throw the flag whenever there is a penalty. There will be camera shots to it. We can do live feeds to it."

Don't expect instant replay, though, because Montgomery said they don't want to cause any official issues.

Montgomery said the structure costs about $200,000. However, none of that price tag will come from district funds or from taxpayers. It's financed solely through sponsors, with 13 different ads representing the panels, including one main title sponsor, around the video board.

"The companies that are doing that will completely fund the project," Montgomery said.

The idea for it came during Manatee's trip to Valdosta, Ga., last season, where the Canes fell to Ware County 23-7 and witnessed Lowndes

Stadium's Jumbotron.

"We're seeing more and more high schools take the next step with facilities," Manatee head football coach John Booth said. "It's important for our program, and for our school in keeping up with that. We feel like we're a top-tier, first-class program and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to kind of continue that."

Getting the video board doesn't mean it's solely designed for use with football. Rather, Montgomery said having it will mean it's going to be used for a variety of other community-related events such as graduation or a movie night.

"The reality is you have five regular season home games in football," Booth said. " And the reality is we've got the ability to do a lot of different things with multiple sports."

And with the sponsorships lined up already, Manatee is set to have the video board generating a revenue stream for the athletic department if it gets passed by the school board and there are no hitches with anything.

The earliest it could be unveiled would be Sept. 11, when Manatee hosts Tallahassee Lincoln. Montgomery said it would happen any time between that home game and October's home game slate, pending school board approval.

The Hurricanes also will become the first public school to have the added video board component to its stadium in Manatee, Sarasota or Charlotte County.

Only IMG Academy's stadium is equipped with it now, but Booth said it wasn't to compete with the Ascenders.

This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee High football stadium in line for jumbo video board ."