Foothill Falcons to Sport New Score Board

The start of the new school year means the race is on to complete installation of the new score board on the football field for the Falcons second home game on Friday August 31.

The Falcons destroyed Novato 52 to 9 last Friday in their first home game of the year giving the old scoreboard a fitting send-off in its final game at Foothill athletic field.

In addition to the new scoreboard, a new state-of-the-art timing system and scoreboard for the aquatic center are due to be installed.

Thanks to the generous sponsors and donors, the Foothill Athletic Boosters (FAB) were able to make these long-term investments and created an annual income stream to help support the sports program at Foothill for years to come.

According to Herb Ritter, FAB Sponsor Co-Chair, "both scoreboards will collectively generate revenue in excess of $45,000 annually."

"Over the useful life of the scoreboards, advertising revenue alone will generate over $900,000 in new money for school programs over the next twenty years. This excludes revenue generated from movie rights, commercial ad revenue on the video display, and any donations that provide space for donors to display their names," commented Ritter.

The entire pool scoreboard and timing system was a take it or leave it, "no strings attached" gift. No past or current FAB donations, contributions, or revenue were utilized to pay for this new asset.

A generous benefactor approached the Foothill Athletic Boosters and offered to donate a brand new timing system and scoreboard for water polo, diving and swim teams.

The new $60,000 timing system was gifted without any restrictions or recognition and the FAB organization and Pleasanton Unified offered to provide competent oversight to the installation and operation. FAB secured two businesses that provide thousands of dollars in advertising revenue each year.

"The new stadium video scoreboard will be fully funded and provide years of positive cash flow through sponsor revenue and donations specific to the scoreboard," said Ritter.

While FAB acquired an inexpensive, five year bridge loan to purchase the video scoreboard, all of the debt and interest will be repaid completely from five-year scoreboard advertising contracts donations for the recognition wall.

Not a single dollar of tax revenue, fair share contributions, or city dollars were utilized to purchase this equipment. After the debt is repaid, Foothill Boosters will enjoy 20 years of costless revenue for further investment into the programs and activities of the next generation of Falcons.

Gold sponsors include: Club Sport, Fremont Bank, Mike Carey Investment Real estate, Dublin Toyota. Silver sponsors are Big O Tires of Pleasanton, Baron Jewelers, Shell of Dublin, and Valley Plumbing.

Charitable donations by individuals are often directed at a specific purpose or program. As with many charitable contributions, the donors for the scoreboards determined the specific intent for their contributions.

In these cases, the booster group has limited-to-no influence in the use of proceeds through restricted giving. However, the leadership of the Foothill Boosters provided the necessary confidence to Foothill supporters to attract these large contributions.

"The athletic field scoreboard provides a unique tool for Foothill's band, creative arts, audio and visual students and athletes," Ritter said.

The video screen can provide a real time view of the field as the proud, two-hundred strong Foothill Marching Band performs during the half time show at the games.

Additionally, the high definition video display will provide a canvass for aspiring movie, TV and video directors from the audio-video club as they prepare commercials, independent short films or video mass presentations.

Coaches of five major men and women's sports teams will have the ability to monitor team practice in real-time from a live video feed.

The Foothill Boosters are just now beginning to contract for 15 second video advertisements to be run during football, lacrosse, soccer and track events and produced by the Foothill Audio and Video Club.

The Foothill Booster Groups are proud of their accomplishments and welcome partnership with the community to keep these assets working for the school. The groups thank all of the volunteers, donors and sponsors who have stepped up to make this project a reality.

The two upright steel beams for the board are encased in 24 yards of concrete in 30 foot holes that are 3 feet wide.

To donate click here.

To Contact: Herb Ritter FAB Co-Chair herb@ritterclan.com

To Contact: Lucia Holman FAB President lholman@BBandt.com