It's $6 million for scoreboard: [FINAL Edition] Kingston, Ga

 If there was ever any doubt that `selling the sizzle' has become as least as important in pro sport as the product on the court or ice, Arthur Griffiths confirmed it Thursday.

Standing beneath a cardboard replica of the eight-sided video scoreboard that will grace GM Place this fall, the chair of the NHL Canucks and NBA Grizzlies marvelled at the fact it will cost $6 million -- as much as it cost to build the entire Pacific Coliseum 27 years ago.

In fact, just the decision to go to eight panels on the scoreboard, rather than four, increased the cost by close to $2 million.

``There are certain things you can guarantee and there are certain things you have to deliver on,'' said Griffiths, chief executive officer of Northwest Entertainment Group.

``You can't guarantee wins and losses will come in time, but you can work on the elements of the building, the seats and customer service.

``You've got to look at this as long term. What's the point of embarking on a project like this without making the commitment that delivers on those expectations.''

Northwest held a news conference Thursday to unveil the replica of the state-of-the-art Mitsubishi `Diamond Vision' scoreboard and to announce corporate sponsorships with Bose Corp., a sound system supplier, and the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Bose will install 400 custom-designed loudspeakers in the arena. Mitsubishi will provide for 499 televisions throughout the arena.

GM Place, which will seat 19,000 for hockey and 20,000 for basketball, is scheduled to be completed in September at a cost of $163 million.

The 62,000-pound video scoreboard has four 9-foot-by-12-foot full-color screens and four monochrome message boards and will be elevated 46 feet above the ice for hockey and 35 feet above the court for basketball. It will be controlled from a miniature television studio that will include production and computer animation facilities.

Only three other arenas in North America -- Madison Square Garden in New York, the new United Center in Chicago and the new Kiel Centre in St. Louis -- have eight-sided video scoreboards.

The Kiel Center, however, has already had trouble with its scoreboard, having to raise it much higher than expected after the heat generated by the massive structure began melting the ice.

``I didn't even hear that one,'' said Tom Anselmi, GM Place's general manager, when asked if the arena had looked into that problem. ``It does consume a lot of energy so there is heat given off, but it has an internal cooling system. There's fans behind it. I'm not too worried about it."