ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO/WQRF) — Rockford IceHogs games will have a new and enhanced look from here on out. A look that is certain to catch your eye.

The BMO Center will be lit like never before starting with the IceHogs home game Saturday night against the Texas Stars. New Dasher boards that are backlit with LED lighting have been installed all the way around the ice. The lighting on the boards will be in sync with the video scoreboard above the ice and with the ribbon lights around the concourse walk area.

“The great thing about these boards is you can do virtually anything with them,” said IceHogs President of Business Operations Ryan Snider Friday morning during a demonstration. “It’s just backlit LED lights, and we can change these things up to look in any pattern and any motion, with any graphics, anything we want to do.”

These boards are the absolute latest in arena technology. The BMO becomes only the fourth arena in all of North America to have the full 360-degree version of it, and the BMO is the first arena in North America to have the Athletica Sport Systems version of it.

“Athletica had our old Dasher boards. They’re one of the leaders in the industry,” said Gretchen Gilmore, the general manager of the BMO Center. “We’re just really excited to have new technology in the building. Our Dasher boards were at the end of their life, and they needed to be replaced, and now is the perfect time to have some new dasher boards with new technology.”

This is the perfect time because their arrival is just in time for the upcoming AHL All-Star Event that will be held here in early February.

“We were able to work with them (Athletica) knowing the All-Star game was coming and will be broadcast live in North American on the NHL Network and TSN in Canada. It’s going to be a great debut of the system,” said Snider.

Money to pay for the LED boards came from reserves in the Capital Improvement Fund through the city of Rockford’s Redevelopment Fund. Gilmore wouldn’t disclose what the cost was, but as she said, new Dasher boards were needed, and for now Hogs fans can boast that their team has the best boards perhaps in all of North America.

“Really, it should bring the arena to life with just another exciting element, something that will really help get the fans on their feet.,” said Snider.

Again, your first chance to see these new boards in person will be tomorrow night (Saturday night) when the IceHogs host the Texas Stars. It’s a seven o’clock game.

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