Michigan Stadium new scoreboards, lights, audio system: The inside scoop about the Big House upgrades

May 31, 2024

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Michigan Insider received an up-close look at the scoreboard, lighting and audio upgrades coming to the Big House for the 2023 Michigan football season.

College football's biggest stadium will debut massive new video boards, color-changing LED lighting and more immersive sound when the Wolverines welcome East Carolina on Sept. 2. Here are all the details:

The offseason construction at the Big House headlines a series of fan experience upgrades across U-M athletics facilities. That undertaking was budgeted at $41 million and includes:

Michigan’s previous audiovisual infrastructure had “aging technology that’s become incredibly difficult to maintain,” Michigan Athletics senior associate athletic director and COO Rob Rademacher told the Board of Regents last March.

“I can’t begin to tell you the enhancement of a scoreboard … how much that enhances the fan experience. It will be like night and day,” Denise Ilitch, a Regent, said. “To me, this is an investment in our fans and our fan experience, and it is a reinvestment in our infrastructure.”

Added Jordan Acker: “The scoreboards are one part of a huge technology upgrade, replacing a 10 year old technical studio that serves many men's and women's sports and upgrading the facilities at both Crisler and Michigan Stadium.”

The previous video boards were installed in 2011.

The Big House first received permanent lights in 2010 and hosted its first-ever night game against Notre Dame in September 2011. Previously, Michigan Athletics did not schedule football games at night, and it had to rent cranes and lights for temporary light installations ahead of 3:30 p.m. kickoffs.

Michigan anticipates all construction on the lights and scoreboards to be completed prior to the 2023 football season.