Hawks adding video boards outside State Farm Arena

Work is underway on the second -- and larger -- phase of the project, referred to as “our Spectacular” by Koonin: a 5,385-square-foot video board that will wrap around the top of two sides of the arena’s Sapphire Parking Deck at the corner of Marietta Street and Centennial Olympic Park Drive. It will be 36 feet high and 138 feet wide, topped by a circular display measuring 20.5 feet in diameter. Installation is scheduled for completion this summer, replacing a much smaller screen previously on that parking deck.

The Hawks are believed to be spending close to $10 million combined for both parts of the project.

The two new high-definition displays, built by Daktronics with a combined total of almost 8 million LEDs, can be used to show live or recorded video, game broadcasts, advertisements, notices of upcoming events and static images.

Koonin said the cumulative effect will be to bring the energy from inside the arena outdoors.

“The purpose of the ‘marquee’ is more information and advertising versus the ‘Spectacular’ (on which) we can cut into game broadcasts and do lots of programming elements with the park being right there,” Koonin said.

The project “was timed with the beginning of Centennial Yards coming out of the ground,” he said, referring to the $5 billion redevelopment of the Gulch area near the arena. “You’re going to have this incredible downtown literally right across the street, so that was the catalyst for us to say, ‘Let’s get ahead of it.’”

One side of the completed marquee was created by repurposing digital boards that were used courtside during the Hawks’ COVID-shortened 2020-21 season.

A $200 million makeover of the interior of State Farm Arena was completed in 2018.