AHL’s Utica Comets first in North America to install 360-degree LED dasherboards

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Nokia Arena in Finland was the first facility in the world to use the technology on every board. Courtesy of Vepe-Icepro

The Utica Comets of the American Hockey League have become the first professional hockey team in North America to install 360-degree LED rink boards in their home arena. The major investment will allow the New Jersey Devils’ top minor league affiliate, which is also owned by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, to digitally control and customize the advertising and other imagery surrounding the rink during games at Adirondack Bank Center, beginning Dec. 28.

The Nextgen LED 360-degree dasherboard system is sold by Finnish company Vepe-Icepro, a leading provider of rink boards in Europe that is seeking to crack the North American market with the new high-tech offering. While boards in many professional hockey arenas, including throughout the NHL, have featured LED panels for some time, Vepe-Icepro was the first company to offer a 360-degree LED solution in 2021. As of this year, six arenas across Europe have installed the Nextgen boards, including in Finland, Germany and Switzerland.

Vepe-Icepro CEO Riku Kallioniemi, who previously served as CEO of Finland’s top professional ice hockey league, said the Nextgen boards cost between $1.1 million and $1.3 million, which is two to three times the cost of non-LED rink boards. The company’s primary sales pitch is that the boards will pay for themselves based on teams’ ability to increase advertising inventory and rates for more dynamic messaging.

“The payback time for the investment in pro leagues is very, very short,” Kallioniemi said.

The Nextgen boards’ advertising capabilities are comparable to those demonstrated by the NHL’s digitally enhanced dasherboard (DED) technology, except the digital imagery appears in the arena instead of being overlaid on the telecast for viewers at home. Like DEDs, the Nextgen boards allow for rotating sponsors throughout the game and “full takeovers,” during which one company gets exclusive branding around the rink.

“Anytime you go digital, there’s just a lot of creativity that goes with it,” said Utica Comets President Robert Esche, a former NHL goaltender. “Partners want that. They want different campaigns, they want different types of messaging, and when you can change that in real time, where all the eyes are focused for the sport of hockey, I think that that lends itself to a monumental uptick [in revenue].”

Aki Hautamäki, who serves as director of development and events for Finland’s Tappara Hockey Club, said the use of the Nextgen boards at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland, has led to a dramatic increase in the team’s sponsorship revenue. According to Hautamäki, Tappara’s seven-figure annual revenue from sponsorship using the Nextgen boards is more than three times the roughly $315,000 earned by a typical club in Finland’s Liiga with standard boards.

Eshe said the Comets are going to proceed slowly in terms of adapting their ad sales strategy to the digital boards. To start, the team’s 54 partners will retain their static positions on the digital boards during play. The team has, however, already sold full takeovers during TV timeouts to sponsors, including Adirondack Bank, for the first 10 games.

In addition to the Comets, Adirondack Bank Center hosts Division III Utica University’s hockey team and Utica City FC of the Major Arena Soccer League. Esche said he expects the investment in the Nextgen boards to pay off particularly quickly, given the ability to sell sponsorship for all three tenants.

In addition to advertising, Vepe-Icepro pitches the Nextgen boards as an investment in fan experience. Hautamäki, the Finnish club executive, said Tappara has animations and effects designed for different moments during games, including goals, power plays and overtime. The boards also can be incorporated into pregame pump-up sequences and starting lineup announcements.

The Nextgen boards can be controlled by whichever software solution a team is already using to program other LED boards throughout its arena, including ribbon boards and jumbotrons. Hautamäki said Tappara uses Ross Video software that is commonly used across the NHL and NBA.

The Comets had initially intended to install the boards in time for the start of the 2024-25 season in October, but doing so required various types of approval from both the NHL and AHL; the NHL did not respond to a request for comment on the approval process.

First came the need to ensure the boards would react to impact the same as standard boards, to ensure player safety and consistent gameplay. Esche said the NHL contracted Philadelphia-based forensic engineering firm ARCCA to test the boards, a process that included a trip to Finland.

Then came the process of consulting with the AHL to determine the rules for using the boards during gameplay. Esche said the only limitations are that the background remains white and that the images remain static during play. That’s different than in Finland, where Hautamäki said his team rotates between static images every 10 seconds, even during play.

Esche said he wouldn’t be surprised to see other teams in the AHL and ECHL, as well as NCAA hockey programs, adopt 360-degree LED boards in the not-too-distant future. Vepe-Icepro is hopeful having its product on display in Utica will lead to more business across the U.S. and Canada.

“Being a European company, we needed a showcase in North America, and we already have a lot of clubs there who have indicated that they want to come and see Utica live when it’s opened,” Kallioniemi said. “We probably do the most hockey dasherboards in the world — there’s no company that does more projects than we do — and we are looking forward to growing in the U.S. and Canada.”

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AHL’s Utica Comets first in North America to install 360-degree LED dasherboards

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