[mike honcho]

NFL tells Cowboys to move Mitsubishi ad under video board
Posted Thursday, Sep. 03, 2009
By CHAREAN WILLIAMS


NEW YORK — The NFL has ordered one modification to the HD video board at Cowboys Stadium, but commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday the league is taking a wait-and-see approach regarding the board’s height since it is in compliance with league rules.

The 160-foot long HD screen, which is 90 feet above the playing field, became an issue after Tennessee Titans punter A.J. Trapasso hit it during an exhibition game last month. The league believes Trapasso’s punt hit a Mitsubishi ad at the base of the video board, 87 feet above the playing field. Those advertising ads will be moved for the regular-season home opener against the New York Giants on Sept. 20, Goodell said.

A Mitsubishi spokesman had no comment Thursday.

The video board will remain at 90 feet for the 2009 season, though the league will review it after the season.

“We’ve done a lot of research on what’s the proper height,” Goodell said in an interview with NFL reporters at the league’s offices. “This is a somewhat recent phenomenon, and frankly most of the research has been from indoor [practice] facilities, because it doesn’t apply to most stadiums. …We didn’t even have standards, and what has become clear from our research is that up to 85 feet, our guidelines, punts have the ability to hit it on a more regular basis. Above that, that’s not supported by the research we have. Jerry [Jones’ board] is at 90 feet.”

NFL officials admitted Thursday that they didn’t do enough research before setting the minimum height standard in stadiums at 85 feet in 2008. In 2005, the standard was 125 feet.

It was only in the past two weeks, after Trapasso hit the video board at the $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium, that the league began more thoroughly researching the issue.

“Prior to that, the research was very inexact,” said Ray Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president for football operations. “It was a guesstimate. We, as a department, came to the conclusion that 85 feet was appropriate. That was a mistake on our part. At the end of the day, we didn’t have enough communication.” Anderson was at the Cowboys’ exhibition game against the San Francisco 49ers last week when 10 punts sailed safely underneath the video board. One of 14 punts hit the HD board in the Cowboys’ exhibition game against the Titans the previous week. The Cowboys maintain that Trapasso was trying to hit the video board when he connected in the third quarter.

Goodell said the league recognizes the board likely will be hit during the regular season, which is why the competition committee addressed the issue with rules changes last week. The question is: How many times it is going to be hit in the Cowboys’ eight home games?

“No one can make an intelligent guess,” Anderson said. “Let’s see how it goes. Let’s not pass judgment so quickly.”

Goodell bristled when asked if “the integrity of the game” was at stake.

“It’s out of the realm of being hit on any kind of a regular basis,” Goodell said. “We’ll see what the experience is based on our research. [It] is above what we set as a guideline, and we have a rule in place for it [if a punt hits it].”

The league, though, understands that critics will call for the board to be raised if only one punt hits it during the regular season.

“It only takes an occasional punt to ask whether it needs adjusting so it’s down to a zero probability,” Anderson conceded. “…If it’s hit three, four, five times, maybe we revisit it.”

It is estimated that the cost to raise the world’s largest HDTV would be at least $2 million. Who would pay is only one of many issues involved with taking the video board above 90 feet.

“The specifics of the stadium design are to enhance the experience, and all the sight lines are set,” said Goodell, who will attend the Cowboys’ regular-season home opener. “There are more complexities to that. There are also safety issues. It’s not as simple as just moving it, because you get wind tunnels. The last thing we want to do is create anything where that falls. There’s a serious engineering issue here that we’re cautious of.”

So, for now, the board stays.