SVG Venue Summit: How Game-Presentation Departments Entertain Fans in New York City Madison Square Garden, Red Bulls, Devils, Mets, Giants highlight their game-day content strategy By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - 7:00 am
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It's not so easy being a sports team playing in the New York City metropolitan area. Competing with many other forms of entertainment, the franchises and venues have to attract the attention of fans on a nightly basis. At the 2023 SVG Venue Summit at UBS Arena on March 13-14, representatives of five local professional organizations - Madison Square Garden VP, Event Presentation, Matt Coy; New York Red Bulls Director, Event Production, Brooke Eveler; New Jersey Devils Senior Director, Live Experience and Production, Joe Kuchie; New York Mets Executive Director, In-Game Operations, Brendan McKeon; and New York Giants VP/Executive Producer Don Sperling - discussed how they combat the issue of performing in a saturated market and how they represent their respective fanbase in in-venue content, along with providing insights into what makes their productions tick.
From left: MSG's Matt Coy, New York Red Bulls' Brooke Eveler, New Jersey Devils Joe Kuchie, New York Mets' Brendan McKeon, and New York Giants' Don Sperling highlight what it's like to produce game-day entertainment in New York City.
How does a team stand out in New York City?
Coy: It's a different animal to compete in New York, but everyone tries to capture that piece of the city by incorporating all of these elements in their show. Whether it be for the Rangers or Knicks, it could be a Broadway singer performing the National Anthem to bring that wow factor. We're creating viral moments with Ryan Reynolds and Henrik Lundqvist in the crowd or Fat Joe singing along to karaoke that's being done on the videoboard to establish that communal feeling that's attracting people to our games. We're also competing with the broadcast networks, so our graphics have to be good, if not better. From doors open until [the fans] leave, we're playing a variety of music in hopes that we play someone's favorite song. We want to show elements that you won't see at a Broadway show, like Vixi Live from The Famous Group, allowing fans to take over the big screen.
Brooke Eveler: It's about finding that balance between the traditional values of the soccer experience that's played in places like Europe and Americanizing it for the New York audience.
Eveler: It's very convenient that we have the only soccer-specific stadium in the area. For us specifically, the league has been around for 25 years, but it's still a new sport in the American landscape. Our show is completely different from when I started five years ago. It was very much the idea of letting the game be the experience, but that doesn't quite work in New York because sports fans in this city are used to the entertainment value from other teams' games. Now we have an in-arena host, Ally Melendez, a live DJ, and crowd prompts. You can imagine crowd prompts to make noise in a game like soccer, but it's what our fanbase is used to seeing, and we have to deliver [those elements] to keep them coming back.
We have a very ardent supportive section who are very traditional and don't like when we do those features, but I've met with them to say, I understand that you might not like it, but there's another three-quarters of the arena that I'm trying to entertain. This might be their first game, and we want them to have a good time. It's about finding that balance between the traditional values of the soccer experience that's played in places like Europe and Americanizing it for the New York audience.
Joe Kuchie: We want to challenge each other and go to other venues to see what other teams are doing.
How are you tapping into local themes as the only New Jersey team?
Kuchie: We take our Made in Jersey mantra seriously. We're going to recognize people that are from New Jersey and have been here their entire life, but there are also storylines where you can come from somewhere else and make yourself in New Jersey. Nico Hischier is from overseas, and Travis Zajac is from Canada, but, when Nico was named captain and Travis played his 1,000th game, we did a huge campaign about how these guys were born somewhere else but their careers were made in New Jersey. We don't try to shove this second part down your throat, but we try to integrate New Jersey into our overall brand, look, and feel. If you look at our videoboard show, you'll see a neon-diner-sign feel to our graphics package, and the background is a subtle map of the state. We don't necessarily have as many celebrities as the Garden, but we work with local celebs from New Jersey that want to be involved. Patrick Warburton, who played Puddy [in Seinfeld], offered to do our open video narration at no cost. We're working with a lot of New Jersey music right now, specifically down the shore. We had our NHL Draft party at the Stone Pony. Working in those New Jersey vibes without necessarily making it overbearing has been important to us. We've gotten into a really good groove over the last couple years.
Don Sperling: When you win, everybody's in a good mood, but, when you lose, nobody's happy. Winning and losing really predicts how you do your rundown for game day.
How does winning and losing affect your game day and fanbase?
Sperling: After a long drought, we had a pretty successful season. When you win, everybody's in a good mood, but, when you lose, nobody's happy. Winning and losing predicts how you do your rundown for game day. Since we have fans who have been coming for years and newer fan
