ANAHEIM : Damaged Stadium to Be Fixed by August

The earthquake damage at Anaheim Stadium should be repaired by mid-August, including the installation of a new scoreboard that will be the second largest in North America, officials announced Tuesday.

Greg Smith, general manager of the stadium, said repairs will begin within six weeks and cost in excess of $5 million. The job will include replacing the Sony Jumbotron scoreboard that fell during the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake with a board that has a screen 30% larger yet weighs half as much.

It will also include repairing the roof, replacing or reinstalling 2,000 seats, repairing some concrete that was damaged and restoring two restrooms and a concession stand that were damaged when the 17 1/2-ton scoreboard and its 23 tons of supporting structures fell.

“We want to have the repairs completed by Aug. 12 and have the stadium up to full speed when we have our first Rams game on Aug. 13,” Smith said.

In the meantime, a temporary scoreboard will be installed in the lower deck in left field for the first few months of the California Angels’ season. Because of the earthquake damage and the temporary scoreboard, the Angels’ seating capacity has been reduced from 64,500 to about 60,000.

The new scoreboard--also a Sony Jumbotron--will have an area of 1,092 square feet, compared with the old board’s 768 square feet, Smith said. Only the scoreboard at Toronto’s Skydome is larger. Plans call for it to still offer color replays of the games. The board may also be capable of doing a light show.

“We are also looking at adding lights (to the scoreboard) . . . that would illuminate when a touchdown or a home run occurs,” said Earl E. Santee, the architect who is designing the repairs. “In recent years, scoreboards have become more of a dynamic part of the event rather than just giving replays of the event.”

City officials have considered applying for federal and state assistance to help pay for the repair costs. The $125-million stadium’s earthquake insurance has a $6-million deductible. The city also is considering legal action against the board’s installers.

The scoreboard was erected in 1988 in a part of the stadium built during a 1979 expansion.

City officials are still trying to determine what caused the collapse, but an engineer for the scoreboard company has charged that a portion of the support beams installed during the expansion were thinner than designed.