Students will soon see the intramural field getting an upgrade with a new scoreboard after the newest Student Government Association legislation.
The idea was initially proposed during a brainstorming session by the Director of Student Engagement and Recruitment for SGA, Meeyah Davis, a senior biochemistry major from Dew.
Ally Sloan, sophomore senator and nursing major from North Richland Hills, had thought about this idea in the past while playing champ soccer with Ko Jo Kai and was passionate about bringing it to completion. There is no set date for when the scoreboard will be finished and officially on the field.
After several of Sloan’s friends told her they never knew the score when watching a game, she wanted to help solve that problem.
“Intramurals are a huge part of student life, so getting this scoreboard [will be] very beneficial for the students watching the game,” Sloan said. “It [will] create more excitement and suspense when games are neck and neck. It also [will] allow the refs to be accountable and help them as well.”
All of the executive team members of SGA have a committee, and Davis and Sloan are on the Policy committee. This committee collaborated to write the legislation showcasing the need for the new intramural scoreboard.
“We went on a deep dive to find the most affordable and high-quality scoreboard on the market,” Davis said. “Our objective was difficult because the prices ranged from $3,000 to $5,000. We found a scoreboard that was about $2,800 without customizations.”
The Senate working budget in the fall is $10,000. It was evident to the policy committee that financial support would be needed to increase the likelihood of legislation passing in the Senate. The Senate decided to pass the bill for $3,033.75, and intramurals agreed to chip in 25% of a max $5,000 budget and the addition of their Logo to the scoreboard.
“Another concern was the university’s decision to move away from the football practice field to the fields behind Smith Adam, and it was proposed that the new intramural fields would have permanent scoreboards, but that has yet to be confirmed,” Davis said. “In addition, the budget for the renovation would only be for a scoreboard on one field, and the scoreboard we have now will be for the other field.”
This scoreboard will be used for the following years to come as the intramural fields will be moving locations in the next year or so. Due to the collaboration between SGA and intramurals, further conversation has been had about SGA chipping in for the permanent scoreboards in the future. This will be a discussion between the Fall ’24 or Fall ’25 senators.
