Longhorns' new high-def scoreboard sets standard

	AP

Have you seen the new JumboTron at Royal-Memorial Stadium? No? Just go outside and crane your neck toward Austin. Can't miss it.

Nicknamed Godzillatron, it's 55-feet tall and 134-feet wide, the largest high-definition video display in the world, at least for a few more months. Texas officials were told a slightly larger one is being built somewhere in Asia. (Maybe that one will be called Mechagodzillatron.)

Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds loves his program being at the technological forefront -- he's been quoted as saying "We are the Joneses" -- and decided after seeing a 30-by-107 video board in 2004 at Arkansas, the Longhorns' old board simply wasn't cutting it.

"When we got into it, I said, 'Let's put one up that will make people in the new north end feel like they're sitting in their living room watching TV," Dodds said. "That's about how it will be."

Actually, that's how it will be if each of those people owned a 102-inch plasma. And if they sat four inches away from the screen.

Godzillatron cost $8 million and is part of a $150 million renovation project that includes adding 10,000 seats in the north end zone. By 2008, total stadium capacity will be 90,000, several hundred of which may actually still watch the game live, rather than on the ginormous video board.

Where did the school get the money for such a luxury? Well, some of it's from merchandising royalties. UT led the country in 2005-06, pulling in more than $8.2 million. It dethroned five-time reigning champ, North Carolina. T-shirts and hats were the biggest sellers. Memorabilia purchases skyrocketed along with the Longhorns' spectacular national championship run and were boosted further with UT's first title in more than 30 years.

"The fan is the guy who'll buy six Longhorn shirts," Derek Eiler, chief operating officer for the Collegiate Licensing Co., told the AP. "Then, there's fashion. Carolina had it with Carolina blue and the Michael Jordan thing. Texas happens to be experiencing that now. People think the Longhorn logo is cool."