Super Bowl XLV: GoVision Gears Up for Plaza Party

How hot a ticket is Super Bowl XLV? Not only are tickets to the actual game going for $2,400 and up, but tickets to the Super Bowl Party Plaza, located outside of the stadium — where 5,000 fans will be able to watch the game on GoVision LED boards (based on Daktronics technology) — are sold out and going for more than $400 on the secondary market.

Everywhere you look during Super Bowl week in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area, you’ll find NFL-sponsored festivities, star-studded parties, and fans from around the world basking in the aura of the world’s biggest single-day sporting event.  And in the middle of it all, making certain that everyone has a great view of the action, you’ll more than likely find a giant mobile screen provided by GoVision.

“This is unique because Dallas Cowboys Stadium was designed with this concept in mind, not only for this game but regular season games as well,” says Chris Curtis, CEO of GoVision. “For regular season games the doors are open as there are no seats in the end zone and fans outside can see the board, hear the noise from the stadium, and be part of the game.”

This weekend the end zone will have seats so the doors will be closed, but that won’t mean the 5,000 fans in the plaza will find the experience lacking. Eight Daktronics PST-12HD LED screens will be set up with four pointing towards the stadium and four away from the stadium. Four of them will be configured as 18×32-foot screens and the remainder will be 15×24-foot screens.

“There is more and more of this sort of thing happening in sports, like for the World Cup matches or the US Open tennis tournament,” says Curtis. “Some people make fun of it but there are plenty of people at the US Open who don’t have tickets for the stadium but watch the matches on the plaza. A lot of people want to come and be part of the atmosphere and part of Jerry World is watching the game on a big screen.”

The efforts at the stadium mark a busy week for GoVision. The company’s mobile screens are being set up in Green Bay and Pittsburgh for promotional events and Walt Disney Pictures hired GoVision to drive a 9-foot x 16-foot “GoBig” unit around the DFW area during the weekend to promote its upcoming film “I Am Number Four.”

The Dallas Cowboys also entrusted GoVision with another critical element of its Super Bowl game-day management.  The company installed, and will maintain, two new 9×16-foot high-definition LEDs in the stadium’s Standing Room Only sections.

And for the second consecutive year, the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee is featuring the company’s screens in its booth at the NFL Media Center.  GoVision used 14 Daktronics PST-6i-b panels to create a mockup of the center-hung screen at Cowboys Stadium, and suspended it over the committee’s welcome booth at the Dallas Sheraton Hotel.

Look for GoVision to play a role in some of the Super Bowl parties. It has installed two 9×16-foot Everbrighten BR7 LEDs on both sides of the main stage at the “Bud Light Hotel” in Dallas, rumored to be the most expensive Super Bowl venue ever. And GoVision’s 9×16-foot Daktronics PST-12HD LEDs will be featured in Academy Sports’ tent during DirecTV’s 5th Annual Celebrity Beach Bowl on Saturday in downtown Dallas’ Victory Park.

In addition, GoBig and GoTron units will be the featured attraction at several game-watching parties, including events hosted by a group of churches in Arlington, a mega-church near Houston, and a popular Arlington restaurant.

Of course, the portable screens in the Cowboys Stadium plazas will be front-and-center throughout the international game-day broadcasts.  In fact, FOX’s pre-game set is stationed directly under one of the GoVision panels.

“We’re always busy during Super Bowl week, but having the game in our back yard has taken it to another level,” says Curtis.  “Our long-standing ties to the Host Committee, the Cowboys, and several NFL sponsors have really paid off in a big way.  Though the weather has put us to the test this week, they know we won’t let them down.”

For GoVision, the end of Super Bowl Sunday means it’s off to the next big event. In this case it will be the NHL’s Heritage Classic, an outdoor hockey game that will be played in Calgary on Feb. 20. A large percentage of the Daktronics LED boards used for the Super Bowl Plaza Party will be broken down into 3×12-foot sections that will hit the road to Calgary.