Delhi business to unveil new goalposts at Super Bowl
Feb. 9—A Delhi business will unveil new goalposts with a "doink" camera at this year's Super Bowl on Sunday.
The goalposts at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, the site of Sunday's Super Bowl LVIII between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs, were manufactured and installed by Sportsfield Specialties Inc., a post on the company's Facebook page said.
"We are thrilled to announce that our partnership with CBS has allowed us to embed 'doink' cameras inside our uprights for this year's Super Bowl," the post said.
The cameras are inside the goalposts, Andrew Hannigan, director of engineering at Sportsfield Specialties said in an email. "The NFL requires a seamless post with no discernable seams that could affect the flight of the ball, so all mounting, structural reinforcement, and cabling, plus the camera itself, are located inside the upright," he said.
It took about one year to research, design and build a prototype and test the design before the custom goalposts were built and installed. "Our first in-game test was at a pre-season game in early August," he said.
The company, which was founded in 1998, is an industry leader in the manufacture and sale of sports construction equipment on the high school, college and professional levels, according to its website. Goalposts in all but two NFL stadiums have been manufactured in Delhi, Hannigan said. The only stadiums not equipped with Sportsfield Specialties' posts are where the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles play.
Hannigan said "it's very rewarding" to see something he's worked on be shown on national television. "As I mentioned earlier, this has been a yearlong effort with multiple design iterations, approval checkpoints, tests, etc. To see it all come together for the biggest sporting event of the year is quite special, to say the least. Producing these was no small feat, and all credit goes to the Sportsfield team that made it happen."
Hannigan said that while he won't be at the Super Bowl on Sunday, the installers will have inspected the goalposts "to ensure that assembly and initial tests go smoothly."
The company's goalposts were first part of the Super Bowl in 2008, at the University of Phoenix Stadium, when the the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots, a Daily Star archive article said.
Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.
