The new video board at PPG Paints Arena looks unreal

If the Penguins didn’t pick up Erik Karlsson this summer, it would have made for a better lede to say their biggest off-season upgrade came off the ice.

Then again, technically speaking that is still would be true in a literal sense after seeing the the team revealing more and more of the brand new scoreboard at PPG Paints Arena. This baby really puts the “jumbo” into “jumbotron”.

Previously, the Penguins were working off the original base of the videoboard when the “new” arena was constructed in 2010. (That’s still new, right?). Like many teams, they eventually added on upper and lower ribbons to the main board in recent years that have become en vogue at the big arenas around the country. But basically, PPG has had the same main board going for well over a decade. Imagine changing out a TV you got in 2010 for a brad new one in 2023. Big difference, in technology and upgrades that have come out over right years, right?

Expect that at the arena this year.

Here’s another video with some more changes at the rink that will be in effect.

As Kevin Acklin, the team’s President of Business said, the new scoreboard is the crown jewel of $30 million worth of investments made by the team this year at the arena to carve out more suite-level amenities and offer this scoreboard that will stretch “almost” from blueline to blueline across the middle of the ice. That’s 50 feet. And just like that, the Pens have gone from one of the smallest scoreboards in the league to the newest and one right on par with anyone in the league.

Those types of spends by ownership for the team can sometimes go overlooked, but will provide a massive upgrade for the entertainment value of fans for years to come. If the scoreboard is your type of thing. Even if it’s not, it will be impossible not to notice the changes made by the Pens for the fans this season in that regard.