We don't need replays to enjoy the Wolverines

Fans also will be greeted by two large video scoreboards at either end of the stadium, bringing replays, flashing lights and unending "entertainment" into the den of the mighty Wolverines.

Approved by the regents on Friday, the new scoreboards are touted as the instruments that will bring Michigan "into the future," according to Athletic Director Tom Goss. They are supposed to enhance the game and make each week a better experience for all in attendance.

Josh White Jumping the Gun

An official in the athletic department added that he thinks "when you look at the way our society is, we get bored very quickly. This is an opportunity to keep interest throughout the entire game ... ."

Funny, I thought watching the best football team in America was entertainment enough.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with video scoreboards. In fact, such boards are used all over the country in arenas and stadiums of all shapes and sizes, from small hockey rinks to the Rose Bowl. Having replays, video presentations and useful statistics no doubt will change the face of watching a game at Michigan Stadium.

That is, however, exactly what I fear is going to happen; the way we watch Michigan football will forever be altered and will never be recovered. By entering the world of video scoreboards we will lose what makes watching a Michigan football game so great: the fact that it is a football game.

I have seen what happens to the greatest stadiums in the world when altered by the new "entertainment-minded" philosophies of those who think they can make a buck in every corner of every venue. The historic Boston Garden gave way to the FleetCenter, with its flashy pregame laser shows, full-color, live-action video screens and blaring music. The United Center bares little to no resemblance to the days of old in Chicago. And it doesn't stop in the pros.

Attending the Michigan-Boston College game in Chestnut Hill, Mass., two years ago, I was appalled by the use of the video scoreboards during Michigan possessions: On the two screens, both facing the opposite end zone, a series of bright flashes with the words "Signal Deafening Noise" would run during each set of downs - a distraction for the visiting team's quarterback and a headache for fans. This may be the route we take.

One of the greatest things about Michigan Stadium is that there is nothing on the field save for the hash marks - not even a block 'M' or a Wolverine on the 50-yard line - and the classic "Michigan" stenciled in each end zone. There is no advertising inside the stadium, the bricks and the fans and the field are all we get to see. The marquee attraction is the contest and all eyes are on the field for the whole game.

I don't buy the "it'll-be-better-because-now-we'll-all-have-something-to-do-during-timeouts" crap. I also don't buy the idea that we all need to see each controversial play 14 times on the replay board. There has always been something comforting in knowing that there wouldn't be a replay in Michigan Stadium, that the call just stands and let's play the game.

These new boards will also take something special out of celebrations. Imagine the Woodson runback touchdown against Ohio State had there been a video scoreboard. All eyes would have been locked to the boards to see the wonderful feat again and again, and we would have been looking for his emotion on the screen and not on the field. Our energies would not have been with each other but they would have been a few hundred feet above us.

And why pay attention to the game? If you can catch every play a few seconds after it happens, why even bother seeing it the first time? Better yet, why not just stay at home and watch the whole game on television and save yourself from that long, cold walk to the stadium?

Sure, it won't ruin the game entirely, but something will certainly be amiss. President Bollinger said that he doesn't "see a decade-old electronic scoreboard as an important piece of the tradition of Michigan football." Perhaps it is just that there really are certain traditions you just don't mess with - and an old electronic scoreboard that tells you, guess what?, the score, seems to me to be one of them.

Just because we are adding 5,000 more seats doesn't mean we have to add glitz too. The stadium sells out without the flashing lights, and there must be something that all those people are coming to see. I say put the $7.9 million into women's athletics and leave the replays to ABC.

- Josh White can be reached over e-mail at jswhite@umich.edu.

03-24-98