We don’t have any details on what caused it. The fire marshal is going to be in on Monday and he didn’t want to get up in there (the scoreboard) tonight. That process is going to take place on Monday, so obviously we could speculate, but I’d rather not. We don’t really have an estimate on damage. The top of the scoreboard is the speaker cabinet, which I think is already fairly well known, and I think that the fire was pretty well contained in that area. Obviously with as much water as was put on the scoreboard, it could be just about any level of damage, from replacing the speakers to replacing the entire scoreboard. We also have our partners from Daktronics in on Monday, so they’ll really assess the damage as quickly as possible. We’re already working on contingency plans and temporary audio/video for our next game. I think by next Saturday we should have some form of audio/video for the game; if it’s our current scoreboard or some other system.
On the reaction of staff and security:
We have plans in place all the time. I’ve got to say that our staff did a fantastic job of quickly getting with the police and the fire department, getting the area secured, and making sure that our fans were not in any sort of jeopardy in terms of their safety. I’ve got to tell you that I don’t think there’s a page in our book that talks about scoreboard fires, but certainly fires in general are a part of our safety plan. I’m really proud of our staff and the way they responded; they were calm, they were professional, and they were expert in what they did.
