The Scoreboard: A display of practicality

I’m embarrassed to say it, but I used to have a bit of a thing about scoreboards when I was younger. Stadium scoreboards, game show scoreboards, cricket scoreboards… you name it, I loved it.

There was something about those static signs  with changeable numbers that had me transfixed as a kid. If someone scored a point in a football match or on a TV quiz show, I’d wait with eager anticipation to see the scoreboard update the total, be it manually or digitally. It’s ridiculous, I know, but I loved the magisterial sense of purpose that a scoreboard possessed.

This blog doesn’t take TV nostalgia as its subject, else you’d be spending the next 15 minutes reading about It’s a Knockout or Family Fortunes. Instead I shall turn my attention towards the humble football scoreboard, and they don’t come much humbler than the one installed at Wembley Stadium around the time of the 1966 World Cup.

Essentially this was a single-line display showing the two competing teams and the score. Being very much old-tech, the scoreboard was literally just a printed  or painted sign with white characters on a black background along with those all important changeable numbers. And those numbers needed some effort to change as the full set were available as individual tiles that had to be lugged around and slotted into place by a couple of men in white coats whenever anyone scored. It was simple, but it worked.

After a while, Wembley put in place an electronic scoreboard which, compared to its predecessor must have seemed like it had arrived from another planet. Using a vast array of light bulbs switched on and off in distinct configurations, rudimentary characters could shine out from the inky black background to tell the crowd what the score was and also who had scored. Such electrical wizardry can't have been lost on a generation eager to see technological advancements improving their game-viewing experience.

Around the UK, scoreboards of all kinds had appeared at football grounds right from the very early days but they never really had the 'wow' factor, nor did they become a universal feature. Scoreboards (old-fashioned or new) were high-maintenance and often expensive so only the most committed clubs went out of their way to get one.

Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground got an electronic one around the time of the 1966 World Cup, but like so many of their day, it had its faults. Blown bulbs and faulty mechanisms meant text was displayed with letters missing or even shown on a different area of the scoreboard. After a while, fans got used to the garbled messages and even grew to like them as a distraction from the action taking place on the pitch.

Fully digital scoreboards like Wednesday's were slow to make an impact and venues hesitantly looked for a compromise. Despite the 1970's beginning on the crest of a scientific NASA wave, the greatest tournament on the planet was still relying on name cards and a handful of bulbs to tell people what they needed to know. If it wasn't for the opportunity to raise some money from the advertising space it provided, many scoreboards probably wouldn't have even seen the light of day.

In the end, our first sight of a new-age scoreboard didn't arrive in England or South America, but from the one place most people least expected it. Over in the United States, the occasional blown bulb wasn't going to stop NASL clubs making a song and dance about the new-found sport they were purveying.

With players like Franz Beckenbauer, George Best and Pele in town, fans needed to be reminded about the razzmatazz they were witnessing, or at least reminded who it was they were watching.

In addition to the basic electronic scoreboards already resident at some NFL and baseball stadia, bigger, more advanced displays cropped up at a small selection clubs across the country. Many of them not only displayed the score and scorers but also entertained the fans with animated imagery and messages.

With such extravagance creeping into the world game, it was hardly surprising that Subbuteo updated their own scoreboard accessory to a more modern version in 1978. The World Cup that year reinforced the notion (at Buenos Aires at least) that a new technological age had dawned, yet actually the rate of progress was still painfully slow. Even in Spain four years later, the old hand-painted name plates and tiles were still being used.

It would ultimately be up to the major stadia of the world to lead the way where modern scoreboards were concerned. At seemingly every major Cup Final on every continent of the world, scores and scorers were illuminated for ticket-paying supporters with great efficiency and clarity. Huge matrices arrived to give displays better clarity and definition, to say nothing of bigger text. Yet just as soon as they'd reached the peak they were always destined for, traditional scoreboards were starting to see the writing on the wall. (Or should that be 'board'?)

By the mid-1990's, Sony's Jumbrotron system was appearing at some of the world's major musical and sporting events, affording spectators the chance to see real-time video on enormous screens. The ability to provide people not just with text-based information but moving pictures and action replays left the traditional scoreboard looking rather old-fashioned and redundant all of a sudden. Even down-at-heel football clubs across the UK saw the potential to attract fans, even if it meant snapping up cruder, cheaper versions of Sony's big screen.

And so we find ourselves in 2012, an age where virtually every Premier League ground seems to have a big video screen tucked away in at least one corner of the ground. For all that, however, some clubs have remained true to the old virtues, believing that a simple scoreboard should not be a big distraction to the things happening on the pitch. Therein lies hope for the future - a reminder that sometimes we can learn a lot from the things we learned in the past. Video screens are all well and good, but the scoreboards of days gone by told us exactly what we needed to know in a beautifully simple way.

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Rich J's Top 5...World Cup Posters

Following on from Chris' Favourite 5 Tournament Logos article, I was going to do my usual thing and follow it up with my own top five, but then I decided to go off at a slight tangent and instead go for my Top 5 Official World Cup Posters.

I've often found with World Cups that the official posters tend to disappear into the background and usually ones featuring the mascot or variations on the logo tend to take prominence. An example of this would be Italia 90. We all remember the blocky stick man logo and he was all over the posters, but does anyone remember this?

Well I didn't...

If you want to see the full range of posters, you can view them here where you can marvel at just how crappy they've become in recent years. Seriously, anything since 1990 is watered down, focus grouped, corporate bilge.

So, for the first time in any article I've written about the World Cup, I'll not be including anything from any tournaments I actually watched at the time... yep, not even Mexico 86 gets a look in.


1.  Mexico 70

We really hit the ground running here! Minimal design but oozing cool, the sheer confidence and arrogance of this poster just smacks you upside the head and makes you its bitch.

Following the timeline of WC posters, there's a clear shift in direction with this one as all previous posters had been very business like and conveyed the seriousness of the occasion. Mexico 70 kicks down the door, traces of white powder gracing its upper lip, gun hanging loosely by its side, flanked by groupies and just dares you to question its pink attire.

I'm Mexico 70, I'm wearing pink. Now you're all gonna wear pink. And we do...

Oh yeah... and that font. That font is the Mac Daddy!


2. Argentina 78

If Mexico 70 was the dealer, Argentina 78 has clearly been enjoying the fruits of its produce.

Here we meet Argentina 78 at a club in New York just approaching closing time. The DJ has just started spinning Gloria Gaynor and it's happy hour all over again!

Following the new arty direction provided by Mexico 70 and West Germany 74 (despite its sombre appearance, there's definite free-form art at play), Argentina 78 perfectly captures the explosion and batshit insane atmosphere of that tournament. The sensible font stands aside to let the joyous, moustachioed protagonists take centre stage. Even the logo appears to be a wallflower at this dance, confined like a shy teen to the dark corners of the dance floor.

It'd be nice to think this level of joy was real and not in any way Junta induced, but one can't help think the smile of no.8 disappeared once his back was to camera.


3. Uruguay 1930 

From the ridiculous to the... slightly less trippy. The first World Cup was held in 1930 and this fantastic Art Deco number couldn't capture that era more perfectly if it tried.

One can't look at this poster without hearing the Charleston, a dance which even the arrow on the left appears to be getting down to. In fact, what is that arrow even doing there? Who cares? The Great Depression has just started and we just wanna dance our worries away!

From the elongated, hex-headed keeper, caught here mid-save (ah, but is that Uruguay's or Argentina's ball?) to the dynamic font, this is a classy piece of work and provides a bucket load of excitement for a brand new football tournament! Perfecto!



4. France 1938

This is the most serious looking of my top five, but also the most elegant.

What looks like a munitions factory worker from a WWII poster (foreshadowing?) standing atop the world, foot resting on the ball, confident in the bagginess of his shorts (foreshadowing Euro 2012 this time!) this poster is all about serenity and occasion.

This is the 1938 World Cup and this is big. And that's all you need to know. Whereas the first two posters felt inclined to impart secondary information (start date, final host city etc), this one just tells you what you need to know. Time and Place. Be there, or be... well, England?

One interesting point to note... despite the tournament being held in France, the globe doesn't seem to want to show you where that is. One could imagine this point being raised at some point followed by the inevitable Gallic shrug before the proof went off to the printers.

Ah, you know what, I've just looked again and of course, the ball is sitting in France...
Poster Designers 1 - 0 Idiot Blogger.


5. Spain 1982

ESPANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!


This is like one of those psychiatric ink blot tests. What can you see? I can see what seems to be a snail, balanced on the head of an unhappy dog, who appears to be sniffing the behind of a Toucan being attacked by a fish. Am I sane doc? Am I SANE???? I don't think I can make sense of anything anymore.

The best part of this poster is the designer appears to have been given the brief, "Drop acid and just paint whatever you see... oh and I think it's about a World Cup or something... probably mention it somewhere on there, but mostly just get ripped to the tits!'

SPAIN 82! F*** YEAH!!!!

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