The purchase was approved at Monday night’s school board meeting.

Board member Karrin Lindow, who is spearheading the job of getting sponsors behind the project, reported that individuals and businesses will continue to fund the cost of the scoreboard annually to support the school's expenses.

“Karrin has done a phenomenal job,” Superintendent Gregg Parks said. “She’s already raised about $40,000 and there’s potential for more sponsors. There is not a succinct timeline yet, but we are working with the company to try to speed the process along.”

The scoreboards will include the shot clocks that the Minnesota State High School League has elected to introduce into varsity basketball starting next year.

The building committee identified the need for change to a shot clock as an excellent opportunity to upgrade from a traditional scoreboard to this multi-functional display.

“The display can be used for graduations, workshops, lyceums, robotics and presentations to the entire faculty or student body,” Parks said. “It will be a multi-use display for us.”

Menagha, Wadena, Park Rapid, and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley have all adopted similar systems for their competition courts.

Advertising will be featured on the board. Two sponsors have already committed to pay $10,000 ($2,500 per year for four years), and a variety of other sponsorships are available. Advertising on the scoreboard has the potential of generating $15,000 or more in advertising annually once the scoreboard is paid for. Ads will run on the board during halftime, timeouts and other times.

“It’s definitely an opportunity to showcase your business and do it in a way that supports the activities and athletics in the community,” Parks said. “The majority of the cost will be paid for through advertising dollars that will continue to generate revenue once the board is paid for. With volleyball and basketball games drawing big crowds, that will benefit advertisers. And the scoreboard will be used for many other events. I think it will be great for the grand march at prom and graduation.”

Lindow said in the future, with the support they are seeing, they may be able to get 16-by-9-foot scoreboards in Tiger Arena and the school field. “This is just the beginning of where we can go with this,” she said. “It’s expandable.”

“Once the scoreboard is paid for, we can use revenue generated from advertising to help support our sports programs that are free for all students,” she said.