The 75-foot-wide video board at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex is operational and ready for the University of Hawaiʻi football home opener on Friday, September 1, against Stanford.
The board was relocated from Aloha Stadium to UH Mānoa in June as part of the second phase of the Ching Complex expansion that includes increasing the seating capacity from 9,350 to 15,000 seats. The scoreboard is located on the Diamond Head/Les Murakami Stadium side of the complex.
“This scoreboard addition is a major boost to the game experience for our fans,” UH Mānoa Athletics Director Craig Angelos said. “We were limited to just one smaller scoreboard on the ʻEwa side for our first two seasons here. With this addition there is now scoreboard visibility for every seat in the house. Mahalo to Aloha Stadium, Learfield, Daktronics and Seth Siaki and the team here at UH for helping complete this relocation project.”
The video board was dismantled into 64 panels for transport from Aloha Stadium. Underground utility infrastructure work was completed, and a steel structure and concrete columns were installed prior to the video board’s arrival.
“Getting the video board was an essential component for phase two of the stadium because we could add all the seats that we wanted to, but unfortunately the old scoreboard didn’t necessarily accommodate all the viewing angles and sight lines from the fans,” UH Office of Project Delivery Project Manager Seth Siaki said. “We were really big on trying to get good teamwork among ourselves, the athletics department, the upper campus departments that support our construction projects, and working with a good contractor and design team in order to make this happen.”
Expansion improves athletic facilities on multiple fronts
The video board is part of the $30-million Ching Complex expansion project, approved by the UH Board of Regents in August 2022.
Related: Relocation of Aloha Stadium video board to Ching Complex complete, June 2023
The project will be completed in two phases. The first phase included adding 5,650 seats and replacing the grandstands in the ʻEwa endzone, increasing seating in the Diamond Head endzone and adding seating that will wrap around the corners of the field.
The second phase of the project is the construction of new track and soccer facilities on the lower campus practice fields, scheduled to begin in August 2023 and be completed in fall 2024. It includes excavation work to level the two existing practice fields; installing a retaining wall and drainage, irrigation and utility systems; and grandstand seating.
