New Scoreboard Use Restrictions Under Consideration

By the spring sports season a new and bigger scoreboard with scrolling text and other features will be in place. 

But, how bright the displays would be, which events it would keep scores for and the windows of permitted times the scoreboard could be used remain to be determined. 

The Hatboro-Horsham School District is in the process of "finalizing all the details" of its forthcoming $60,000 scoreboard for Hatboro-Horsham High School, according to Bob Reichert, the district's director of business affairs. 

Part of moving forward with the scoreboard–which is being funded through advertising, as well as a $30,000 four-year sponsorship agreement with the Edward Taylor Coombs Foundation to fund–is to seek zoning relief for the new billboard's square footage, size and "animation," Horsham Township Manager Bill Walker said. 

Scoreboards up to 40 square feet are permitted without zoning relief, Walker said, adding that the existing scoreboard is 240 square feet and the proposed scoreboard would be 576 square feet.

During a review of the scoreboard project Monday night, the Horsham Township Council entered a neutral position for the project, which will be before the zoning hearing board on Dec. 10. 

However, that position is conditioned upon the district and the township setting restrictions on times when it could be on and in use; the types of events it could be used for; the district's willingness to adhere to brightness controls; and the district's agreement to not use the video screen for video replays without future consent from the zoning hearing board, Walker said. 

Township staff and district officials will work out specifics next week, in advance of the zoning hearing board meeting, Walker said. 

Reichert said he understood that because of the new scoreboard's larger size and its use of electronics additional layers of local approval were needed. 

"It's different from the old, traditional style," he said. "It's not like it's going to have instant replay or anything."