One of Tiger Stadium’s older fixtures is finally receiving the 21st-century update that it deserves.

Greenville High School’s football stadium will now sport a brand-new LED (light-emitting diode) display scoreboard on the home side of the field.

Greenville head football coach Josh McLendon said that the project was a long time coming.

“It’s probably been 10 to 12 years, maybe,” McLendon said. “The guy replacing our old one called it ‘a dinosaur.’ It was one of the old-school ones that still had the bulbs in it.  This new one is wireless, and it should be a nice addition to the stadium. When you’ve got wires involved and things like that, we just had problems with the light bulbs going out.  And of course, you had to change them.  It’s just not how a lot of places do things anymore. We’re trying to catch up and make sure we’re up to date on our facilities, and we feel like this is one of the things that adds something to the stadium.”

The new scoreboard comes as an incentive in a deal between Coca-Cola and Greenville High School, which will manifest in a number of other ways for attendees at Greenville-related sports events.

“Coca-Cola approached us a few months ago about swapping from Pepsi to Coke,” McLendon said. “In the package that they brought to us was a new scoreboard for the stadium, new 25-second clocks and new scoreboards for the gym. 

“There were several things that they included in their package, and between myself and Mr. Dean, we just felt that it was a good opportunity to get something.  We didn’t figure we’d get a new scoreboard any time soon; they get pretty expensive.  And they’ll be selling Coke products at the stadium and the school now, so I think it’s a good deal for everybody.”

The scoreboard is just the latest in an ongoing effort to bring Tiger Stadium into the modern era.  Last season saw upgrades to the field’s turf as well as some fencing and new goalposts.  And, if McLendon’s hopes and dreams come to fruition, the scoreboard won’t be the last major addition to the stadium.

“We hope to, at some point, get us a nice field house in the end zone and be able to accommodate both teams when they dress pre-game and post-game,” McLendon said. “Hopefully, that’s the next step in the process.”