Youppi! makes his Habs debut

From the Toronto Star:

Just like old times in Montreal, Youppi! was there to high-five Andre Dawson and Gary Carter amid the wild cheers of a sellout crowd. Sadly, for fans of the city's late and lamented baseball team, last night he was standing on skates at centre ice at the Bell Centre — not outside the Olympic Stadium dugout — and all three were wearing Montreal Canadiens jerseys. Dawson and Carter, two of the greatest players in the Expos' 36-year history, were on hand as guests of the Canadiens for a ceremony honouring the four numbers retired by the National League team, which moved to Washington, D.C. last season.

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Youppi!, the Expos' fuzzy orange mascot since 1979, did not move with the team.With the arena's lights dimmed, the video scoreboard showed Canadiens defenceman Sheldon Souray looking into the camera in the team's dressing room and offering encouragement to an unknown, who was obviously making his debut. Cheers filled the rink as the familiar mascot's image was seen wearing a Canadiens uniform and grabbing a toy stick and oversized puck before racing onto the ice to the approval of the audience.


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New scoreboard at Charlotte Arena

"The New Charlotte Arena today unveiled the concept and design of its center-hung video display and scoreboard, which will be the most technologically advanced board in the country when the arena opens in November 2005. Created together with Spurgeon Design Group and manufactured by Daktronics, the scoreboard will have a larger video screen with higher resolution than any other arena in the country, and will feature a 360-degree projection system with ground-breaking, three-dimensional images of the Charlotte city skyline." (Press release...)

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"Standard scoreboards have typically featured fixed digital displays surrounding an LED screen averaging nine feet wide by 16 feet high. The New Charlotte Arena’s four-sided, center-hung scoreboard will feature four 16-foot-high by 28-foot-long LED (light emitting diode) screens that can change throughout an event to feature one full-screen image or an assortment of animations, graphics, video, text, scores and other event-relevant information."

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Working with noted arena and stadium consultant Michael Deutsch of Phoenix, the arena partnered with Spurgeon Design Group, who are experts in lighting, video, sound and sets for Broadway shows, themed venues and Las Vegas theatrical extravaganzas, to design the concept they had generated.

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In addition to the four horizontal high-resolution displays, the 38-foot-high by 36-feet-wide, 80,000-pound scoreboard will feature four LED vertical displays on the corners of the structure. All these high-tech components will be manufactured and installed by Daktronics, the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of integrated scoring and video systems.”

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The scoreboard’s most unique design element will be a three-dimensional, back-lit Charlotte city skyline that sits atop the center-hung display. The skyline will come to life through a 360-degree projection system, whose multiple projectors will offer a seamless movie-screen projection of a limitless variety of creative images. For example, the skyline may feature day-time or night-time views and can be altered to entertain the crowd in a variety of ways, from fireworks shooting across the sky after an emotional moment in a game or event to a hot-air balloon or airplane passing by. An endless amount of animated effects can be created by the arena’s design and graphic team to bring the skyline to life.