On the Gridiron: Seattle Seahawks Production, Ops Teams Keep Fans at the Heart of Game Day at CenturyLink Field Known for their volume and support, The 12s' are honored throughout the stadium By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 - 2:51 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Many professional sports have opted for a return to play inside a sanitized bubble. Not the NFL. Without skipping a beat, the league is soldiering on with regular-season games in all 30 stadiums across the country. Similar to our At the Ballpark series, On the Gridiron examines the new routines, habits, and production philosophies of in-venue personnel on any given Thursday, Sunday, or Monday.
For any given NFL franchise, fans are always the top priority, but, in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Seahawks' fanbase is the difference-maker. Known as The 12s, they use their passion and vocal cords to change the tide of a game. As a blanket of silence sits over CenturyLink Field, production and operations have worked together to develop a plan that still heavily involves the team's followers at the venue.
I'm not sure I'll ever get used to [working in] an empty stadium, says Mike Tremel, director, technical operations, Seattle Seahawks. To me, sports are about the fans, and they are our motivation behind what we do. Operations is trying to keep game day as normal as possible and help facilitate the vision of our production team.
MORE ON THE GRIDIRON INTERVIEWS
Silver and Black Productions, Las Vegas Raiders Build New Roots During Allegiant Stadium's Inaugural Season
Philadelphia Eagles Embrace Virtual Workflows for Efficient Regular-Season Strategy
New York Giants Entertain At-Home Fans With Daily Digital, Linear Programming
While SoFi Stadium Remains Empty, Los Angeles Chargers Refine Production Workflows
Atlanta Falcons Acclimate to Evolving Set of COVID-19 Policies at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Minnesota Vikings Adjust Content Approach at High-Tech U.S. Bank Stadium
How the Kansas City Chiefs Celebrated Super Bowl LIV, Displayed Moment of Unity Before 2020 Season Opener
Carolina Panthers' Mike Bonner Gets Settled in New Role Amid Interesting Circumstances
Indianapolis Colts Facilitate Remote Radio Broadcasts of Away Games from Lucas Oil Stadium
Baltimore Ravens Adjust In-Game Operations To Feed More Content to Digital, Social Platforms
After Busy Offseason, Denver Broncos Welcome Limited Fans Back to Empower Field at Mile High in Week 3
San Francisco 49ers Production Team Shifts Gears To Engage the Players
Jacksonville Jaguars Reflect on In-Stadium Fans During Week 1, Connecting With Duval' Community
Without Raucous Crowds, New Orleans Saints Adapt to a Quiet Mercedes-Benz Superdome
Love to the 12s: Large Mural Lists Names; Microsoft Teams Offers Interactivity When the organization met to discuss possible ways to integrate these loyal supporters into the game-day experience, they wanted to preserve a home-field advantage.
Names of Seahawks season-ticket holders are displayed on this mural in the hallway under the stadium.
We definitely still hear our fans in the community, says Ryan Madayag, director, game entertainment and special events, fan development, Seattle Seahawks. We've shifted our focus from a content standpoint. So a lot of our hype videos are on our digital platforms now, and our game-day priority is to create that home-field advantage.
The 12s may not be at CenturyLink in person, but technology and traditional artistry are making sure that they are there in spirit. For instance, the corridors leading to the locker room have a personal touch that reminds the players whom they're playing for.
Wide receivers D.K. Metcalf and David Moore interact with fans virtually.
When they park their cars and come into the stadium, he explains, we have this huge mural of a giant 12, and every single season-ticket holder's name is inside it. They know that the 12s have their back because it's one of the first things that they see before entering the locker room.
This year, the Seahawks were expected to use their stainless-steel Seahawks head that players typical run out of. In accordance with field-level restrictions and the fact that no fans would see this structure, the team revised this idea for the tunnel and opted for a different approach.
We designed a giant screen at the end of the tunnel for this program, called the Pregame Huddle, says Madayag. We have fans that are on the Microsoft Teams platform that can see the players come out, and the players are actually interacting with these groups. We had our Crucial Catch game that acknowledges early screening to intercept cancer, so we had cancer survivors and healthcare workers in the audience.
Extra Room: A Storage Closet Becomes a Control-Room Offshoot Across professional sports, in-venue crews are following strict health and safety guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19. Some have resorted to dispersing crew members into any available space, including empty areas in the press box and offices. The Seahawks are following that route, using three separate parts of their facility, and Tremel and his staff flipped an old storage closet into one of the three current production locations.
The 12s are prominently featured in CenturyLink Field, including this walkway toward the locker room.
It's now a suite next door to our control room, where seven staffers are responsible for doing replay and editing, he says. There's a lot of work that has gone into this to make sure that we can keep this big production going. From what was originally 32 or so people in our main control room, we've cut that number to 16 in that one space. We've also added KVM capacity, [enabling] the people that handle quality control [to] work fr
Most recent headlines
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today! By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
23/12/2025
New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
On the Gridiron: Seattle Seahawks Production, Ops Teams Keep Fans at the Heart of Game Day at CenturyLink Field Known for their volume and support, The 12s' are honored throughout the stadium By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
