Council disallows corporate advertising on scoreboards

By Tim Seyfert, Town Crier Staff Writer

The Los Altos-Los Altos Hills Little League will soon get a new addition to its home playing field.

The youth baseball organization got approval from the Los Altos Hills City Council Oct. 2 to install two electronic scoreboards at the Purissima Little League fields, replacing the playing area’s outdated, manually operated wooden models.

The upgrade project was initially proposed to council last month and was put up for discussion at the most recent regular town hall meeting.

At issue was whether or not approving the new scoreboards included the option of using them for advertising.

In its proposal, the Los Altos-Los Altos Hills Little League requested that it be allowed to print ad logos such as Pepsi on the billboard-sized machines, the advantage being that a corporate sponsor would pick up the cost. Electronic scoreboards sell for between $3,000 and $6,000 each.

Council voted 5-0 in favor of installing the scoreboards but unanimously shot down the notion of corporate logos, citing that the display of advertising was in violation of town law.

According to the LAH municipal code, “No advertising display shall be placed or maintained on property within the town.” Council determined that scoreboards didn’t warrant an exception.

“I don’t think (advertising) is a good idea,” Councilman Breene Kerr said. “We might as well put a billboard in front of town hall and call it ‘Pepsi Town Hall.’”

Ben Gikis of the Little League’s board of directors told the Town Crier that he was content with the final ruling, but said he would have liked to have used the extra funds toward other needed upgrades, such as landscape improvements.

“The most important thing was getting the new scoreboards,” Gikis said. “We were always having to explain to our players why (our scoreboards) didn’t look like the ones at other fields. At least now we can be up to speed with everyone else.”

The electronic scoreboards are scheduled to be installed sometime around November or December, before the start of the spring baseball season.