Sometime soon, West Virginia will unveil its plan to add a massive video board somewhere within the vacated space above Touchdown Terrace. That’s the left side of the picture. Consider it a starting point for in-stadium enhancements.

WVU issued a RFP in December for two video board possibilities, either one large board in the north end of the stadium or two smaller boards in the corners of the north end. Both have their merits in that each would give fans on that end of the stadium better looks at the plays and replays, but the Mountaineers have selected a company to install the single board.

The RFP called for a structure 38 feet high and 98 feet long, and all Athletic Director Shane Lyons was willing and able to say was the new board will be “significantly bigger” than the current board in the south end. That one is 23 1/2 feet high and 85 feet wide.

These additions are not cheap, but WVU’s not paying for most of this. The multimedia rights contract with IMG College makes money available for capital improvements. The Mountaineers already used the initial allotment, but an additional $3.5 million is available through 2019. Lyons said IMG is paying for more than half of this project. (Aside: I was going through that contract the other day — no, you shut up — and WVU’s two Sweet Sixteen appearances are worth $10,000 each from IMG.)

The idea is to make the game day experience better and give patrons a reason to complain less and/or come to games more often. It’s not going to produce a spike in season ticket sales, but single-game purchases could be affected, if only temporarily. Let’s check out this new board. Who knows? Maybe some of those people say, “Let’s keep going back. This is better than what I’d groaned about for years. And I like what they’ve done with the concourses.”

The real ROI comes from ads, though. Matt Wells, the senior associate athletic director for external affairs, said the “combination of new digital ad positions and static ad panels” could generate ad revenue “in the low to mid six figures annually.” That’s useful.

And, again, this is much more of a beginning than an ending. Lyons has plans beyond this. Far away, he thinks premium seating has to be addressed  – “Does the entail something in front of the weight room, which is an enormous cost, or do we do more long-term premium seating within the press box?” — so long as the economy supports that growth and WVU isn’t spending beyond what the market can reimburse. Before all of that, much simpler things are likely on the way.

“I think what’s going to happen is we’ll put this board up and then we’re going to have to go back to the south end zone and look at that and upgrade that board,” he said. “The next part of my big picture for that is the sound system. Right now, we have sound just coming from over the north end zone, so I think the next thing is a true surround sound within the stadium where we have more balance.

“Sometimes we’ve got to adjust it, but if you’re in the north end and we turn it up so the fans in the south end get excited, now it’s too loud there. The next thing is making sure the other video board is upgraded and then ultimately to have a sound system in there.”