The Art Hauser Centre's new scoreboard made its debut last week. (Taras Kachkowski/Twitter)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Rising to the occasion

Home opener tests Raiders and Hauser staff

Sep 24, 2019 | 5:36 PM

The new score and game clock featured prominently in the Prince Albert Raiders home opener last week.

However, getting the new equipment ready for opening night was not the easiest task for the Raiders and all the contractors involved as there were some last-minute challenges. Michael Scissons, business manager for the team, said an issue came to light before puck drop.

“I guess the Thursday night [we] became aware that our old controller which puts up the time, the penalties the score, I guess all the pertinent information to the game, wasn’t speaking to the new clock computer,” he said.

Scissons said once this problem was discovered, staff needed to get to work to ensure the scoreboard and clock would be ready for the opener. The team was eventually able to locate a replacement part and get it to the arena.

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“Long story short [we] had to make a quick trip out to Humboldt, left around eight o’clock, got back around 11:30 at night, with a new controller in hand,” Scissons said.

Getting the new equipment installed involved a number of people. It saw people doing work to reinforce the roof, to contractors running electrical and data lines and then others worked to install the software.

Besides this work, Scissons said they had to prepare the imaging which had been developed in advance to properly display on the scoreboard screen. This was the last hurdle to be overcome.

“Those were taking place right up until I’d say right up until to six o’clock, when we open the doors for the building,” he said.

Overall, Scissons said opening nights are generally a challenge for any sports franchise. He added during his career he has been involved in 17 home openers and said this year’s Raiders opener was unlike any of the previous ones. This was because of the new additions like the score clock and new lighting along with the league commissioner being in attendance.

“By far and away this was the most unique one,” he said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn