Live From MLB All-Star 2024: League's Global Events Team Runs to the Rodeo for MLB Draft in Fort Worth Van Wagner, Solomon Group put finishing touches on massive effort By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 2:00 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Major League Baseball dives into the utmost of immersion for many of its tentpole events: Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA and Rickwood Field in Birmingham, AL, to name a pair. Opting to go all-in on Texan flair for the 2024 MLB Draft, MLB Global Events is relying on two notable partners - Van Wagner, who's involved for the first time as the in-venue production arm, and Solomon Group for tech needs - to pull off an entertaining handful of days within the historic Fort Worth Stockyards.
We looked at a couple of sites, says Emilie Matson, manager, global event experience, Major League Baseball. This one was the most authentic and gave us the best opportunity to have the most fun and produce a really great show.
Breaking the Mold: League Goes Hyper Localized for Fourth Event on the Road When the league decided to move their annual Draft away from MLB Network's studios in Secaucus, NJ, their first attempt at an onsite production during MLB All-Star festivities was in Denver in 2021. For that year, the show was produced from the Bellco Theatre in the Colorado Convention Center. In 2022, the event was done outside for the first time at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. In 2023, Seattle's Lumen Field - a venue packed with NFL-standard infrastructure, a massive footprint to handle a ton of foot traffic, and other advantages - was a proper location that was adjacent to T-Mobile Park. This year, however, MLB Global Events went a different route with Cowtown Coliseum - a more intimate venue with a history that matches the town's longtime relationship with the Wild West. To make a memorable splash in a state like Texas, the building was a perfect fit. A lot of times, fans emotions are conjured by the building that they're sitting in. For Solomon Group, which has the main goal of augmenting this experience with a myriad of additives, decided to not overdo their portion of the job by letting the space speak for itself.
MLB's Emilie Matson and Van Wagner's Lindsay Anson at their perch in the venue.
Every year, the MLB Draft is crafted to the city that hosts MLB All-Star, but for this one, we asked ourselves how we could make this one look like the state of Texas, says Steven Fink, co-founder and executive producer, Solomon Group. Moving into a place like this, we developed a scenic design that would make our job so much easier.
Surprisingly for a 116-year-old venue, the infrastructure was more advanced than most would expect for a building that opened two years before Rickwood Field. As a beloved location known for cattle, bull riding, and the excitement of a good old-fashioned rodeo, Cowtown Coliseum has kept up with the times with a recent renovation. On the tech side, 17 new LED displays, including a dazzling main videoboard on the far wall, were installed. The lighting quality was greatly improved as well with the addition of a new lighting rig at the building's center. A few things were added by Engineer Rob Kodadek, including lighting on the beams on the building's roof.
I've been in a lot of buildings that host the rodeo, but when we walked into this venue and saw what they already had installed, [Cowtown Coliseum] is a couple years into a lot of renovation work, adds Fink. The new management team had a pretty impressive, built-in system for bull riding.
To ensure that the league's overarching vision meshed with the entertainment elements that Solomon Group supplied, Solomon Group's Senior Producer Victoria Sumrall has an open dialogue with the league representatives from MLB operations including VP, Global Events, Jeremiah Yolkut, and Coordinator, Global Event Operations, Hikari Shumsky.
Sharing the Space: Game Creek Video Trucks House Van Wagner, Solomon, Broadcasters Outside of Cowtown Coliseum, two of Game Creek Video's onsite mobile units - Gotham and B9 - are packed with a full house of onsite staffers. Not only is Van Wagner and Solomon Group using this space, but so is ESPN and MLB Network. MLB Network has provided these accomodations and MLB Network's Senior Remote Technical Manager Zaac Christopher is the main point of contact for Van Wagner. Operationally, Director, Technology, Jeremy Havens, and Manager, Technical Operations, Patrick Steadman, are leading Van Wagner's onsite strategy. With a hefty amount of commercial traffic in the area, local businesses are highlighting special events with fans in town. One business is Billy Bob's, which promotes itself as the World's Largest Honky Tonk that hosts numerous concerts and musical events, and is located next to Cowtown Coliseum and shares their back-of-house space with the rodeo venue. Van Wagner arrived early to set up their compound, but country singer Hunter Hayes was scheduled to play at Billy Bob's on Saturday, July 13, which presented a major hurdle that needed to be navigated.
Solomon Group's Steven Fink is also onsite to assist the league and Van Wagner.
We were working within half of [the building's footprint] since they were getting ready for the concert, says Havens. We lost some production space for our mobile units, so that was a fun one to work around.
Technologically, the in-venue show will be driven by 13 total cameras, which includes five from ESPN, five from MLB Network, and three operated by Van Wagner. Those three are a podium POV, a hard camera at a slash position, and a RF SteadiCam. In addition, MLB Network will share its live Zoom feeds of remote prospects and all 30 clubs' Draft rooms to be displayed on the videoboard.
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...
Live From MLB All-Star 2024: League's Global Events Team Runs to the Rodeo for MLB Draft in Fort Worth Van Wagner, Solomon Group put finishing touches on massive effort By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
