Andrew Clem mentioned the most troubling aspect of RFK Stadium: the lack of truly useful scoreboards, pointing to a poll at District of Baseball that shows a majority of users supporting such an improvement. Andrew suggests that some of the outfield wall be converted for such use.

I can’t argue with that, though there are some issues that would need to be addressed. Firstly, the third base stands’ mobile nature would make for a design challenge. Also, most of the wall is solid concrete, so structural issues would need to be addressed. However, it’s not out of the question, and perhaps it could be dovetailed with a redesign of the sad banner of DC Sports Hall of Fame members.

But the DC Sports and Entertainment needs to do something. It’s tough when you can’t get good stats on the opponents’ in-game performance (they have hacked their fancy shots of Nats players to include in-game statistics – why can’t they do the same for the visiting teams?). While I don’t expect anything like the gigantic scoreboard at Shea Stadium or the old-school scoreboard at Fenway Park, there is much room for improvement. They could even completely block off the seats in sections 545 to 547, building a better ‘board in the process.

And they might as well invest in RFK Stadium, as financing for a new stadium contiunes to be problematic. According to a report in today’s Washington Post, a majority of the DC Council has yet to approve of Mayor Williams’ favored Deutsche Bank financing plan. As such, a planned mark-up session on said plan has been shelved by Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, and as a result the timetable for construction of a new stadium gets pushed back. Given this, it’s likely that the Nats will be playing at RFK until at least the 2009 or 2010 season – so pony up the funds for a decent scoreboard!