Renovations to the Reilly Center means students now share the campus with construction crews working on both projects.
Workers replaced the Reilly Center’s old scoreboard with a newer video board with many more capabilities, and the floor of the gym was redone with St. Bonaventure’s updated logo.
“First thing we did was the installation of the video display system. We removed the four-sided center scoreboard that was there and replaced it with a two-sided video system that should be ready to go mid-October,” said Steve Campbell, Associate Athletics Director of Internal Operations.
“The floor project was a complete sand-down and refinish, re-staining, repainting of the arena floor,” said Campbell. “The floor was 10 years old, it was built in 2007. Time-wise, you get about 10-12 years out of a floor before you need to sand it back down to the original wood. We were at that time frame, and it turned out fantastic.”
Workers installed the video board in June. The new video board is a 16-foot by 9-foot ANC video display has a resolution of 368 by 672 pixels, according to Campbell.
According to Director of Athletics Tim Kenney, when workers put in the new video board, it became apparent that the beam that it was being supported by needed to be reinforced.
The company currently fortifying the roof to strengthen it was not able to come to Bonaventure until mid-September.
Officials also found lead paint on the beams, which needed to be removed.
“The timing was primarily due to contractor availability,” said Campbell. “The video board company’s availability was primarily in that June-July time frame. The contractor for the floor was only available late August or September-October. The work on the ceiling, the roof reinforcement, that needed to be done, and it was aligning availability of contractors to do the work that needed to be done.”
Kenney said that while the new video board is not much heavier than the old scoreboard, the reinforcement was done purely out of caution.
“Since St. Bonaventure typically gets hit with a heavy snow load, when workers looked at the roof, they said that it would be a good idea to fortify the roof now, instead of deferring the work for later,” said Kenney.
Since lead paint was found only a week after the new floor was completed, workers from Empire Erectors and Electrial Co. in Buffalo needed to cover up the floor and protect it so that machinery to come in to remove the paint and to fortify the ceiling.
“The scoreboard company had to have it in by June, and we did the floor afterwards,” said Kenney. “We would have preferably done the scoreboard first and the floor afterwards, but we knew this was going to happen all along.”
While the teams are still in offseason and do not open practice until Oct. 2, the teams are allowed to workout a specified amount of time per week.
They had to use the Richter Center basketball courts for their practices, but Kenney said that an agreement was worked out with Rob DeFazio, director of the Center for Activities, Recreation & Leadership, that allows the teams to practice there.
The video board will allow Bonaventure to make the games much more exciting, Kenney said. It will allow for instant replays and crowd interaction, an example of which could be promotions or a kiss cam, said Kenney.
It also allows for better corporate sponsorship through the use of video and the video board would allow the school to secure more sponsors, said Kenney.
Kenney also said there are plans to add additional video screens in the gym for even more screen space for scores, replays and sponsorships.
“We have plans for two more video boards on the walls,” said Kenney. “We are going to be talking to people about funding for that. This would allow video to encompass all of the arena.”
“When admissions hosts an open house, they could run a video on the screen or other events that use the Reilly Center, like graduation, can broadcast on the screen,” said Kenney. “This new video board is for more than just athletics. It is for the building and university itself.”
signorra15@bonaventure.edu
