FloSports Orchestrates Mega Weekend Spotlighted by Chili Bowl Nationals, UCA & UDA College Nationals

FloSports Orchestrates Mega Weekend Spotlighted by Chili Bowl Nationals, UCA & UDA College Nationals This is a Super Bowl weekend for us.' - Joe Baker, VP, Production, FloSportsBy Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Friday, January 16, 2026 - 12:54 pm

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For most production teams, delivering a single, marquee live event is more than enough to test the limits of people, workflows, and infrastructure. For FloSports, mid-January brings something far more ambitious: a weekend that stretches across disciplines, geographies, and production models, with two of the company's most-watched properties - the 40th-Annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink in Tulsa, OK, and the 2026 UCA & UDA College Cheerleading & Dance Team National Championships in Orlando - unfolding simultaneously.

FloSports FloRacing division is in Tulsa, OK, to cover this weekend's 40th Annual Chili Bowl Nationals. Debuting at the event is the Chili's Bar & Grill Pre-Race Show (pictured). It's just one of numerous major events that the company will livestream this weekend. (Photo: FloSports)

From dirt-track racing inside SageNet Center to multi-hall cheer and dance competition at ESPN Wide World of Sports, FloSports' operations group is tasked with managing thousands of live moments, hundreds of crew members, and a blend of onsite and remote productions - all while serving highly-engaged audiences expecting both scale and depth.

This is a Super Bowl weekend for us, says Joe Baker, VP, production, FloSports. We'll have more than 1,000 events with two of the most-watched and highly trafficked events of the year going on at the same time. We've logged hundreds of hours in preparation and a tremendous amount of investment into making this an enjoyable experience for our customers and a success for our partners.

Two Flagship Events, One Unified Operations EngineThe challenge for FloSports is not simply volume; it's contrast. Chili Bowl brings nonstop motorsports action, dense schedules, and a race format demanding constant statistical context. UCA & UDA Nationals, meanwhile, is a three-day parade of precision performances, with multiple halls active at once and storytelling driven by inches and fractions of a point.

One of the most rewarding aspects of working at Flo is that, every week, we have disparate events to cover from a variety of locations, indoor and outdoor, says Baker. On the same day, we can be producing a high-speed hockey event alongside an indoor wrestling tournament with multiple mats and activity going on at the same time. That has given our teams the experience and muscle-memory to execute on a high-volume weekend like this one.

FloSports' Joe Baker: One of the most rewarding aspects of working at Flo is that every week we have disparate events to cover from a variety of locations.

That institutional muscle-memory is being tested at scale. Although Chili Bowl and UCA & UDA Nationals serve as the weekend's twin production pillars, they are far from the only complex shows being executed. On the FloRacing side alone, the company is simultaneously producing Chili Bowl in Tulsa, the Wild West Shootout in Arizona, and the World Championship Snowmobile Derby in Wisconsin - all fully produced onsite with FloSports' own mobile infrastructure. In cheer and dance, UCA & UDA Nationals is a multi-hall remote production from Orlando while The Majors is fully produced in Indianapolis. Adding an international layer to the weekend, FloGrappling is also fully producing the European Jiu-Jitsu Championship from Lisbon, Portugal (FloGrappling Senior Producer Kyle Grover oversees that property).

And that's not even to mention all the school-produced college sports streamed through the FloSports service on a daily basis. Collectively, the parallel efforts underscore what this weekend represents inside FloSports: not just two marquee events on the calendar but a synchronized, multi-vertical stress test of the company's production ecosystem.

Chili Bowl: Onsite Scale, Expanded StorytellingAt Chili Bowl, FloSports is once again building the show from the ground up inside its own onsite production environment. The race coverage is fully produced from a FloSports production trailer, with a 20-camera complement, six announcers, rotating booth guests, multiple replay devices, and a mix of traditional and specialty acquisition tools, including the return of the drone and the addition of onboard cameras.

New this year is the Chili's Bar & Grill Pre-Race Show, a live original program airing throughout the week and featuring legendary NASCAR drivers. The show adds a second major production layer on top of the already nonstop race schedule and extends FloRacing's coverage beyond the track itself.

We're constantly upgrading our production elements and technology, Baker notes. This year, we debuted Chili's Bar & Grill Pre-Race Show, [adding] a whole new production component outside of race coverage itself.

The technical evolution extends into the live race presentation. FloSports' production team built new real-time data integrations designed to clarify one of the event's defining elements: passing points. FloSports Technical Producer Robbie Johnston developed a workflow that allows real-time passing points to be displayed in graphics, along with standings pages that include qualifying cutoff lines, giving fans immediate context around how each heat impacts championship positioning.

We wanted to dive deeper into the educational component of the coverage, Baker says. The Chili Bowl, for example, has a somewhat complicated scoring system: you gain points the more cars you pass. With that, it becomes clear that heat races at the Chili Bowl mean more than just about any other race.

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