Scoreboard will light it up if Jets don’t

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This article was published 17/09/2015 (3698 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Less than 11 years after its official opening, you can be excused if you don’t recognize the MTS Centre.

True North Sports & Entertainment has poured many millions of dollars into upgrades of the downtown facility since that first AHL game between the Manitoba Moose and the St. John’s Maple Leafs in November 2004.

The improvements kicked into high gear once it was announced the NHL was returning to town in the spring of 2011 and the latest $12 million in enhancements was put on display for the first time Wednesday afternoon.

Arguably the biggest change is the addition of a new high-definition scoreboard. With four screens measuring 17 feet by 22 feet, compared to nine feet tall by 16 feet wide for the old scoreboard, and 10 times the resolution, fans will be able to see replays down to a couple of millimetres when the puck crosses the goal line.

Noah Baird, True North’s manager of audio/video and broadcast services, said it makes the scoreboard from the old Winnipeg Arena, where players’ pictures were virtually indistinguishable from one other, look like it came from the Stone Age.

“It’s just much smaller light bulbs. The distance between the LEDs has gotten smaller and smaller and that’s what brings the resolution higher and higher,” he said.

There will also be additional camera angles from the penalty boxes, home and away team hallways, the Jets’ bench and underneath the clock.

There will be 278 additional sets of eyeballs taking in the new scoreboard from the new row of loge seating that’s been added on to the 300-level, bringing the building’s capacity for hockey up to 15,294.

Ticket holders will enjoy swivel chairs and a counter-style ledge for food and drinks.

Kevin Donnelly, general manager of the MTS Centre and senior vice-president at True North, said that should be the last new batch of seats that fans will hear about for awhile.

“Never say never,” he said. “But we won’t be raising the roof.”

Corporate messages will move around the larger power ring and be complemented by new LED screens on the front of the press box and above the Zamboni entrance.

Corporate suite holders will also notice their couches have been replaced by high-top tables and bar stools, which not only make it easier to see the game away from the arena seating but also more conducive to hosting social functions.

The changes are all part of True North’s “TN 2020” initiative which will see nearly $30 million in enhancements throughout the building by 2020.

Geoff.Kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca