On the Gridiron: Jacksonville Jaguars Reflect on In-Stadium Fans During Week 1, Connecting With Duval' Community Due to safety restrictions, production had only one shot for in-venue content during Media Day By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Monday, September 21, 2020 - 1:10 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Many professional sports have opted for a return to play inside a sanitized bubble. Not the NFL. Without skipping a beat, the league is soldiering on with regular-season games in all 32 stadiums across the country. Similar to our At the Ballpark series, On the Gridiron examines the new routines, habits, and production philosophies of in-venue personnel on any given Thursday, Sunday, or Monday.
Despite 2020's being a whirlwind of a year, it has given NFL organizations a chance to catch up and reignite a relationship with their respective fanbases. Starting even before the season opened, production teams are doing what they can to maintain that vital connection. The Jacksonville Jaguars allowed fans in the stadium for their season opener, which provided the franchise the opportunity to cook up content both inside and outside of the stadium.
MORE ON THE GRIDIRON INTERVIEWS
Without Raucous Crowds, New Orleans Saints Adapt to a Quiet Mercedes-Benz Superdome
We were super-fortunate to be able to have some fans here, says Carlos Caceres, production manager, Jacksonville Jaguars. We were close to the 10,000 mark in attendance, which isn't ideal but definitely better than nothing, so we maintained home-field advantage. We couldn't have asked for a better home opener.
AV Scheme: Select In-Venue Fans Alter Production Plans Caceres instructs running back Chris Thompson during a Media Day photoshoot.
The Jaguars joined the defending-champion Kansas City Chiefs as the only two NFL teams to host fans on opening weekend. Throughout the offseason, facing the possibility of having an in-stadium audience for teams in the state of Florida, the production staff made sure to test out both possibilities for maximum assurance.
While we were waiting some direction, we bought some decibel meters and coordinated with our events team, football operations, and myself in the booth to play the [NFL Films] soundtrack out into the bowl, says Caceres. We were walking around and getting different readings on the main concourse, field level, pool deck, etc., and, before the league mandated [crowd noise], we got to an internal agreement.
This year's Media Day was the team's only chance to have direct access to players for content, including shots of quarterback Gardner Minshew.
At a time when fans in the stands are a rarity, producing an in-venue experience that can be digested by spectators is different from what has become normal over the last couple of months. When local and state government officials gave the Jaguars the green light to let fans inside, they were treated to a traditional, pre-COVID in-venue show.
Philosophically, we determined that, whether we had 5,000 fans, 10,000 fans, or 20,000 fans, we still want to bring the same game-day experience and production value that we're accustomed to, expect of ourselves, and think our fans would want, Caceres says. Everything from kickoff videos to player prompts to our Duval chant. The fans reacted very well to a lot of those elements, and I think the appreciation for that level of experience was there.
Digital Connection: NFL Draft, Offseason Acquisitions, Social Justice Fill Social-Media Feeds For fans who can't make it into the stadium, the production team is making the extra effort to curate material that speaks to topics and issues they care about. As protests and marches have taken to the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement against racial injustice, the production team invited all members of the organization to take part in a peaceful gesture of unity outside TIAA Bank Field, which was streamed on social media.
It was a really cool experience and something that the organization supports, says Caceres. Our routine conversations revolve around building diversity, inclusion, community outreach, activism, voting, and social justice. I've been here since 2009, and I don't think we've ever done anything like that. The numbers back us up as well, because we've streamed various things over the years, but, when we streamed the entire march, it was one of the highest-performing live streams that we've done ever. Hopefully, we continue doing more of that.
Prior to the season, the organization's digital outlets updated fans on the newest signings, trades, and other roster moves. As with most teams, the most active days were April 23-25, when Rounds 1-7 unfolded in the first-ever virtual NFL Draft.
One of the franchise's most successful live streams, the player-organized Black Lives Matter march was viewed on the Jaguars' social-media feeds.
The Draft brought the same traditional expectations but within a working-from-home scenario, he says. For example, you usually see inside of the War Room, so we had to install infrastructure in the GM's and coach's house to meet with their scouts for their normal process leading up to and on the night of Draft. We couldn't do a [live and in-person] Draft party, so we did an Instagram Live session with a couple of local influencers and some of our in-house talent.
Another big day for gathering content is the team's annual Media Day. In most years, the event would be packed with representatives of different departments in the organization, but, with safety protocols in place, Caceres and his crew were part of a handful of people permitted access to players in an enclosed setting.
Media Day kept getting pushed back, and we didn't know when players were going to report
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
10/06/2026
DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...
10/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...
10/06/2026
An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...
10/06/2026
The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...
10/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
10/06/2026
SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...
10/06/2026
NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...
10/06/2026
Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...
10/06/2026
FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...
10/06/2026
Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...
10/06/2026
The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...
10/06/2026
The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...
10/06/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...
10/06/2026
The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...
10/06/2026
Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...
10/06/2026
A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
By Lucy Spicer
Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...
10/06/2026
Get Hands-On with Interfaces & Mic Preamp Brands
If youre after a new interface or preamp, then GearExpo UK is the place to be! Well have a whole host of au...
10/06/2026
November 13-14 2026, The Midway, San Francisco
Following their recent rebranding, MONO Music Conference (formerly Music Expo) have officially announced thei...
10/06/2026
Debut instrument free for limited time
deFORM is the debut release from newly founded developer ebbandflow, and it's being offered as a free download fo...
10/06/2026
Alone Australia Season 4: Meet the Cast
10 June, 2026
Media releases
WATCH THE TRAILER
Smash-hit survival series Alone Australia drops its highly anticipa...
10/06/2026
DEADLY THEN, DEADLY NOW, DEADLY ALWAYS: SBS & NITV IGNITE NAIDOC WEEK 2026 WITH ...
10/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF advance laser-based drone defense with THORIS LCS Rohde & Schwarz is showcasing THORIS at ILA 2026: A sovereign, end to end counter...
10/06/2026
MAHLE and Rohde & Schwarz develop application for sensor testing of modern drive...
10/06/2026
Production and Development Funding supports the creation of compelling, commercially viable, artistic and culturally relevant South African screen content. Deve...
10/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
10/06/2026
Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...
10/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...
10/06/2026
At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...
10/06/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...
10/06/2026
Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...
10/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/06/2026
10 Jun 2026
VEON's Banglalink Brings Every World Cup 2026 Match to Football...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
How to watch every ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 match live on Sky Sports
Where is the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 availabl...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
P RLA brings first-ever Beautifully Clean Oral Care'...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
Sky reveals pulse-pounding first teaser trailer for upco...
10/06/2026
Wuppertal June 10, 2026
Riedel Artist at the Heart of the 14th World Live Neurovascular ConferenceAt the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Li...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC
Product
10 June 2026
GlobalSouth KoreaJapan
Link copied to c...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions
Business
10 June 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download all assets
N...
10/06/2026
Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals-without losing their shape Scripps Research team develops stereoretentive radical-radi...
09/06/2026
Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...
09/06/2026
SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...
09/06/2026
EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...
09/06/2026
Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...
On the Gridiron: Jacksonville Jaguars Reflect on In-Stadium Fans During Week 1, Connecting With Duval' Community Due to safety restrictions, production had only one shot for in-venue content during Media Day By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
