After Six Years, Let There Be Light

Six years after it conked out and 11 years after it was moved, the Big A is scheduled to light up again.

Anaheim Stadium will spend $642,000 from stadium operating funds to renovate the Big A and hopes to have it ready by Dec. 15.

The scoreboard never had any serious problems until it was moved from behind the left-center field fence to the edge of the 57 Freeway in 1979.

“All the electrical parts were continually failing and we had to keep buying replacement parts until they didn’t make parts any more,” said Greg Smith, Anaheim Stadium’s general manager. “Then we started cannibalizing--taking parts from one line of the board to fix the other parts.”

But that didn’t last, either, and the Big A was completely shut down in 1984. “That one was actually a scoreboard,” Smith said. “This one will be more versatile. It will have a full matrix board, like the one inside the stadium.”

Aside from the scoreboard, the structure will be checked by engineers and reinforced if needed and new lighting will be installed so the A and the halo can be lit at night.