Peden Stadium opened in 1929, and in the 82 years since, worldwide broadcasting giant ESPN had not sent a crew from its main station to Athens.
That changed this week, though.
More than two dozen ESPN crew members rolled into the parking lot at Peden Monday night to kick off the first of three days they will spend on and around campus.
Months of scheduling and two days of on-site preparation will come to a head tonight, when the Bobcats will be introduced to households across the country.
“Obviously, programming wants to pick the best possible matchup,” producer Wayne Edwards said of Ohio’s game against Temple tonight. “Coming into this week, this is the best matchup.”
ESPN’s crew has had its hands full behind the scenes. Everyone from soundboard technicians to on-air talent has been hard at work to ensure everything runs smoothly when the Owls visit.
The network is not flying completely blind, though. Edwards has been working hand-in-hand with Tom Symonds, Ohio’s assistant athletic director for media relations, to get the scoop on everything about Athens.
“I’ll talk with the (Sports Information Director) the week beforehand and say, ‘Hey, what are the spots that we can bring a camera to so we can show the atmosphere and the flavor of the town?’” Edwards said.
He said the crew will benefit from the experience of network components ESPN2 and ESPNU, which have both broadcast live from Peden.
One of the locations ESPN is keying in on is the Hocking River and the view of the stadium from its southern bank.
The best way to get ESPN to return to Athens in the future, say the network’s officials, is to pack Peden to the gills Wednesday.
A problem in broadcasting midweek Mid-American Conference and Sun Belt Conference games is that attendance is often not on par with the Bowl Championship Series conference games football fans are used to seeing on Saturdays.
“The biggest difference here is that you run the risk of fans not showing up and having empty seats all over the place,” director Scott Katz said. “If you’re watching the game at home and you see nobody there, there’s no excuse to watch it on TV.”
Getting quality footage at a venue like Peden presents the crew with a set of unique challenges. The stadium is one of the oldest in the country, meaning it might not be the most accommodating facility for all of the technology required to produce a national broadcast.
ESPN will be running much of its in-game operation from a conference room in Peden Tower instead of in a more typical studio. Though huge venues such as Ohio Stadium in Columbus have an I/O panel networks can use to plug into an established wiring system for broadcasting, at Peden, the crew has to run its own wires to where it hopes to set up cameras.
“Some of the stadiums are set up so you can hook up your cameras and hook up your phone lines right next to the stadiums,” Edwards said. “In stadiums like this, we do what’s called ‘home run runs.’ That means we have up to 500 feet of cable that goes from camera directly to the truck. We work with stadium officials to find the best, safest way to conduct those home run lines to our cameras.”
For crew members who have flown in from up to 15 hours away for the contest, putting out a quality product for the fan base is worth the effort.
“Every play you have to be on your A-game,” Katz said. “It may be a 3-yard run, but it may be the play of the century. That’s where the adrenaline is, where every play you have to be on your A-game because you never know what’s going to happen.”
jr992810@ohiou.edu
