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
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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.
