Live From Grand Slam Track: PMY Group, KOJO Fill Philly's Legendary Franklin Field With Energy During Two-Day Festival of Track

Live From Grand Slam Track: PMY Group, KOJO Fill Philly's Legendary Franklin Field With Energy During Two-Day Festival of Track Production brought U.S.-based game presentation to a global fanbase By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 12:51 pm

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Since 1895, Franklin Field has many notable accolades in its history: home of The Penn Relays, the oldest and largest track and field events in the United States, the first college football stadium with a scoreboard and the oldest still in operation, and more. This past weekend, the building added the first season of Grand Slam Track to its list. The in-venue production, which was spearheaded by PMY Group and newly acquired KOJO, offered a fresh take at what it means to attend a live track meet in person.

These are the greatest and fastest athletes in the world, and that's a spectacle to see, but we're filling in those other downtimes with really fun and engaging entertainment for the crowd, says Mike Bonner, director, business development & event presentation, PMY Group. The cooperation, coordination, and communication that's needed between all of the different parties are unmatched.

PMY Group, KOJO, and local staffers produced the in-venue show at Philadelphia's Franklin Field.

A Proven Track Record: Grand Slam Track Selects PMY Group for In-Venue Production During Grand Slam Track's early days, the first-year league were busy bringing their production partners together. With the difficult task of broadcasting these events in a brand-new way already on their plate, the organization was bullish on recruiting an outside vendor that had an impressive resume and lineage of reliable production to handle the event presentation. Aiming to bring energy to the patrons that went through the turnstiles and create envy for those not in attendance, the team looked no further than PMY Group. A multifaced company armed with the technological knowledge, creative thinking, and production acumen necessary for an upstart sports league, PMY Group has a long history in the sports-video- production history. That portfolio was expanded through the acquisition of KOJO, a global creative studio that has taken part in high-profile sporting brands like the Australian Football League (AFL), Australian cricket, the National Rugby League, and FIFA-sanctioned events, back in September 2024. When Grand Slam Track assigned PMY Group as the in-venue lead at the start of 2025, the real work began.

We started ramping everything up about two months before the first event in Jamaica in April, says Jacqui Raymond, senior producer, KOJO, who's serving as lead producer for Grand Slam Track. Now being part of the global company that is PMY Group, this has been a really great opportunity.

The James D. Dunning Coaches' Center housed the control room on the campus of UPenn.

This production strategy was finalized with the help of two other individuals: Bonner, a longtime industry veteran, and independent show caller Andy Kay. Bonner, who joined the Grand Slam Track effort as executive producer shortly after joining PMY Group in late March, has numerous years of technological and production expertise with professional sports teams like the New York Yankees, Denver Broncos, and the Tepper Sports & Entertainment-controlled Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC, college programs like the University of Notre Dame, and work on the international level at the nine Olympic Games. Kay, a mainstay in the track and field production industry for three decades, solidified their production team with someone who knows the sport inside and out.

[PMY Group and KOJO] wanted somebody who had a bit of experience with how the sport works, says Kay. We've done a handful of events that have been similar, but there have also been subtle changes because we're still learning as we go.

The front bench of the temporary production space.

Right Next to Franklin: Crew Produces Shows from Dunning Coaches' Center One of the largest wrinkles about Grand Slam Track from the in-venue production side is that each venue presents its own set of challenges. For their debut event at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, the crew were in the outdoors to produce this event. With unpredictable Caribbean weather and being exposed to the elements, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) found ample room indoors to house this team. The only issue is that the building - the James D. Dunning Coaches Center - isn't broadcast capable as an administrative office for UPenn Athletics' coaching staff. KOJO's EIC Christian White was responsible for setting up the technological backbone in the building, which required assembling a flyback back in Australia prior to the start of the four-stop tour. and sending it over to UPenn's campus on short notice. After Kingston, the setup needed to get back into the country for the second leg at Ansin Sports Complex in Miami and to the campus of in Philadelphia.

We basically had 24 hours to put the flypack together, build the rack, and send it out via air freight, says White. Over the last two events, we've been refining the kit by figuring out which gear does and doesn't work and what we need more or less of. We've gotten [our set up] in a pretty good spot where we can install everything within two days.

For this particular event in Philadelphia, White is joined by PMY Group's Manager, Venue Technology, Heath Wells, and Global Venue Technology Specialist Swayze Campbell to get the room ready. This trio is also tasked with establishing a fiber connection to the external videoboard in Franklin Field, the main clock and score operator to display real-time data, and Game Creek Video and High Rock Mobile Television's production trucks

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/06/03/live-from-grand-slam-track-pmy-...
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