New Big Scoreboard is Coming to UCSC

There will be no more squinting to see the score at intercollegiate soccer games in the fall. There will also be no more extension cord snaking along the field or generator to power the portable board at the Lower East Field. UC Santa Cruz sports is going big time.

Thanks to Wells Fargo's $15,000 donation, the campus will have a big, solar-powered scoreboard that will better inform the 300 or so fans who come out for men's and women's soccer games on campus.

“The small, portable scoreboard is positioned directly across the field from where the guests sit, but it’s not ideal,” said Ryan Andrews, UCSC’s executive director of Student Engagement, in a press release. “You’ve got to have pretty good eyes. It just doesn’t feel right.”

Wells Fargo's Michelle Bassi learned about the scoreboard during a campus tour while she was attending the bank-sponsored Scholarship Benefit Dinner. Several months later, she and bank executives, Jeff Oellerich and Alex Hughes, were back with a donation for the better scoreboard, which will be installed by fall semester.

The board will be 5.5 feet high and 16 feet wide, or seven times bigger than the old one. It will also be used for Ultimate Frisbee, rugby and intramural teams.

No word yet on when the school will get a football team or change the team names from Banana Slug.

Check the schedules here.