Banking on Steel

BY: Paul Constantini, SE, PE, Greg Martin, PE, Mary Stanzione, PE

CITIZENS BANK PARK in Philadelphia has boasted one of Major League Baseball’s biggest and brightest video boards since it opened in 2004.

Staying on the cutting edge of in-stadium displays occasionally means upgrading them, which the park has done thrice since 2004. And each time, the Philadelphia Phillies have aimed big with their home venue’s video board.

The initial version of the board (also called PhanaVision) was primarily used for giving in-game statistics. After seven years in service, a new HD scoreboard replaced the original board during the 2010–11 offseason. That board measured 76 ft high by 97 ft wide, approximately three times the size of the previous board and, at the time, the second-largest HD screen in the National League.

The Phillies decided in the spring of 2022 that it was time, once again, to redo the video board. And again, they proposed a dramatic size increase. They engaged longtime design partner EwingCole, which designed Citizens Bank Park, to determine the maximum size video board that the existing structure could support. Before the behemoth could be built and erected at that size, though, EwingCole needed to conduct numerous engineering studies.