Baseball always delivers big-event productions, from Opening Day to All-Star Games to historical events and playoffs. The setting of the sport lends itself to such pageantry. I always think about this around Opening Day, and this year, there were grand productions at Dodger Stadium around their World Series title; at Oracle Park, as the San Francisco Giants opened the season on Netflix; the Toronto Blue Jays had a big and ambitious opener around the team’s 50th season; the Tampa Bay Rays celebrated the reopening of Tropicana Field in style; and the Boston Red Sox honored their 1986 team that came one strike away from winning the World Series. All big productions, challenging and complex efforts, and, in these specific cases, focused on the team and baseball.
Event presentation and game-day entertainment are among the most important aspects of a fan’s sports experience, and teams are better than ever at this. It’s something I’ve long followed, and as I read Don Costante’s new book, “Beyond The Scoreboard: The Ultimate Guide to Sports Event Presentation,” you understand just how much there is to this puzzle.
First, the overall philosophy starts from above — and the vision of ownership plays a major role in the approach. Costante’s point is that while you and I will see a final product, what ultimately determines success happens through leadership decisions, structural alignment and the ability of the event director to deliver. A chapter that intrigued me was when he recalled a change in ownership philosophy at the baseball team he worked for. It shifted from a broad-based, “fan-centric” effort that looked across pop culture to more “sport-centric,” where all content was based on baseball. So, that meant eliminating various programming, live entertainment and reducing the number of contests to only those that were sponsored.
He also writes that some wanted a “team-centric” approach, with the attention focused on players; each player appearance would have to be structured and submitted weeks in advance. But that offered up curveballs: Which players are used? Do others get overlooked and feel slighted? Will team operations intervene and offer their suggestions, thoughts or pushback? Both of these approaches clearly narrowed his options, and the programming became far less diverse and tailored to only a segment of the audience. He felt that didn’t cast a wide enough net to attract the casual fan.
As I thought more about this, I remembered one of the first people who hired me in sports while he worked at the Baltimore Orioles. Charles Steinberg is well-known as being among the best in class when it comes to scripting powerful game-day productions; he did so for years at Fenway Park with the Red Sox, and continues today with the Worcester WooSox. Steinberg shared his philosophy on event presentation that he has followed since he joined the Orioles at the age of 17: “Who is the market? Who is the market you desire, and who is the market who is actually in the ballpark? That’s what you consistently have to be asking yourself,” he told me. He agreed that ownership’s direction sets the tone, and laughed when recalling, “A new owner told me, ‘You can play any song you like. Just make a list and show it to my wife for approval.’ Well, how limiting was that?”
I went to a game recently with friends who have a young boy, and as I don’t have children, it was a fun opportunity to see the game through his eyes. For him, this regular-season game was all about the atmosphere, entertainment, storytelling and pace. To Costante’s points about broad-based entertainment, the young boy loved the mascot, the giveaways and scripted acts, but he was also fully engaged in music, lighting and wanting to be on the jumbotron. Costante’s takeaway is that when these elements are aligned, the event becomes a fully emotional experience — not some disconnected in-game moments — which strengthens fan loyalty and connection to the organization. That was easy to see on this game night, as it’s about live and electronic entertainment delivering one seamless, emotional, inspiring performance.
Steinberg, who helped make “Sweet Caroline” and “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” team anthems, stressed that music is critical. “You can avert your eyes from the field, the scoreboard and even the video board, but you can’t avoid the music,” Steinberg told me. “Music sets the tone. There are times for ‘Field of Dreams,’ ‘Don’t Stop Believin’,’ and ‘Hells Bells.’ I put myself into the shoes of the 10-year-old fan, to get the wonder of how that child feels; that helps you know which Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter song would be best to play.”
There are clearly different approaches: In his book, Costante said he adhered to a “fan-centric” approach, which he believes was more open and accessible, drives interest and attendance, and incorporates everyone’s needs and wishes. Steinberg’s philosophy was simply, “Listen to the children. They will always tell you what matters.”
Let me know what approaches work in your market.
Abraham Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
