See the sign. Buy a ticket.
That’s one of the results Colin Campbell expects from the new ShoWare Center marquee as it daily displays constant messages about upcoming Seattle Thunderbirds hockey games and other events at the Kent arena.
“Absolutely,” said Campbell, T-Birds vice president and assistant general manager about the anticipated increase in ticket sales. “It’s one of those things where you will see it in the morning and it will put in the thought process about a game that night or later in the week in a person’s head and create more likelihood that you will come to the game. It puts games or other events on the top of people’s minds.”
ShoWare officials plan to light up the double-sided sign at a still to be determined time Friday to the estimated 18,000 vehicles that pass the city-owned arena each day along West James Street.
Crews from The Sign Factory of Kirkland installed the video display board Thursday. The full-color display is 9 feet high by 17 feet wide. Crews last month installed the 20-foot high base to hold the video display board.
“All the passengers and drivers in vehicles driving by will have a whole new awareness of what’s happening in the building,” said Beth Sylves, ShoWare marketing director. “Whether it’s hockey, a concert or a Disney show they won’t be able to miss what excitement is happening.”
The $190,000 marquee will run messages 24 hours a day to promote the 2-year-old arena. The Kent City Council voted 6-0 in August to spend up to $225,000 from the city’s lodging tax reserve fund to pay for the sign.
Kent receives about $150,000 per year from the lodging tax. The Legislature approved in 1997 a lodging tax that directs 1 percent of city taxes collected on hotel room sales to be used to promote tourism.
The sign in front of the center will display messages with video whenever possible.
“We have great hockey footage we can put up,” Sylves said. “And we have video from the Globetrotters that we can put up there.”
The Harlem Globetrotters bring their 2011 World Tour Feb. 17 to Kent.
“It’s going to be very illuminating,” Sylves said. “The signs are angled so that you can see it while traveling east or west. It’s capable of crisp, life-like video imaging. You’ll get great visibility from far away and also when walking on the plaza you can see the messages from close up.”
While “Welcome to ShoWare Center” looms as one of the primary messages, the board will include a rotation of upcoming events at the center. It also can display the current time and temperature and even help direct traffic to other parking lots if the main lot fills up prior to an event.
“I am sure there are a lot of uses we have not uncovered yet,” Sylves said. “We’ll come up with more useful applications. We’ll do a lot of analysis after it’s up and running.”
Sylves said they will test the lengths of messages and videos to figure out how long each segment should run as people drive by as well as determine how much video to use versus animation.
“We’ll learn what works soon after it’s fired up and ready to roll,” she said.
Campbell said the T-Birds had hoped the arena would have had a marquee when it opened. Initial plans for construction of the ShoWare Center included a marquee, but city officials dropped the sign because of rising costs of the facility. The city opened the $84.5 million arena in January 2009.
“We’re extremely excited,” Campbell said. “It’s a tremendous addition. With all of the traffic that goes by it will increase the awareness factor of games and all of the events. And with the clarity of the screen, it will look real good.”
For more information, go to www.showarecenter.com.
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