War Memorial renaissance to continue with addition of new scoreboard, video center and sound system

April. 04, 2008

The new score center features a 36' x 9' 10-inning scoreboard with MPH readout, a 19' x 9.5' LED message center capable of video playback, backlit sponsor panels and a decorate truss with clock and stadium name.

HAMPTON, VA-- The Peninsula Pilots have finalized plans to install a new state-of-the-art scoreboard at Peninsula War Memorial Stadium in Hampton, VA this season.  After nearly eighteen months of proposal review, planning, design, sales and marketing for the privately financed initiative, Daktronics (a Brookings, SD company) was selected as the supplier for the $400,000 project.  The structure will include a 36' long 10-inning LED scoreboard with a speed-of-pitch display, a 19' LED color video / message center, backlit sponsor panels, a 5' analog clock and a decorate steel truss framing the stadium name.  Construction is set to begin immediately and the project's completion is slated for mid-May, in time for an unveiling at the 2008 USCAA National Championships hosted by the Northrop Grumman NN Apprentice School.

The new scoreboard structure, the first of its kind in any Coastal Plain League ballpark, will be built behind the left-center field wall.  The existing scoreboard, originally installed in the early 1970's, will be converted to a billboard frame and mounting station for another high impact improvement, the Sportsound 1000 stadium audio system.  The enhanced sound setup is scheduled for a simultaneous completion with the video / message center. 

In order to get the project off the ground, the Pilots, with support from the newly reorganized Peninsula Stadium Authority, needed assistance from four key corporate partners.  Those partners, BayPort Credit Union, Retail Alliance, W.M. Jordan Construction Co. and Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding will be prominently displayed flanking the video screen on backlit 4' x 8' advertising panels. 

Team VP and Head Coach Hank Morgan is clearly excited about the pending improvements, saying "we expect these projects to do more for the overall experience of Peninsula baseball fans since the original construction of War Memorial in 1948.  The first word we expect to hear from people when they see and hear these improvements is 'wow!'  Our plan is to use these enhancements to add to the information and interaction available to our fans on a nightly basis." 

Since the Pilots brought summer-time baseball back to War Memorial in 2000 and formed a partnership with the Apprentice School and the City of Hampton, the stadium has experienced a gradual facelift designed to bring the facility up to present day fan and player standards.  Among those enhancements are group picnic and party deck areas, a tiki bar, field level corporate boxes, a kid's zone featuring a wiffle ball field, new dugouts, a modern field lighting system, a new warning track, and upgrades to the field of play, public restrooms and clubhouse facilities.

The Peninsula Pilots are a collegiate wooden-bat franchise that is a member of the 15-team Coastal Plain League, which features teams from Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.  The league is designed to offer collegiate players exposure to professional talent evaluators and to expose them to the rigors of Minor League travel and every-day play.  Since their birth in 2000, the Pilots have had 71 players signed to professional contracts.  There are currently three Pilots on Major League 40-man rosters, most notably Washington Nationals' third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who wore number 8 for the 2003 Pilots.