H O M E S T A N D
BASEBALL FOR THE FANS
The 12 times a season when baseball is home and the game belongs to the fans.
“I love it. I think it’s great... it gets the fans involved and they have fun with it. And that is what it’s all about.”
- Cal Raleigh
The Homestand.
Twelve times a year, like the stitching that holds together a baseball, Homestands define a season for the team’s fans and the community in which it plays. Twelve times a year, we document each Homestand to engage our fans in the unfolding of a season and the part in it that they play. With a light touch on Baseball operations and an emphasis on the atmosphere, the personalities, the food, the pen, the Press Box... the sights, sounds and smells of the ballpark... we can bring meaning and fun to the term “fan experience.”
The Privileged View.
There is a built-in audience for behind-the-scenes programming in sports. From “Hard Knocks” to “Full Swing” to “Break Point” the format is proven. For 25 years the Seattle Mariners served its fan base a privileged view of ballplayers through its Comedy Commercials. Few acts of engagement have been more successful or enduring. We can do the same for the fan experience at the ballpark. A good field test for this approach is “The Perfect Game”, where Felix Hernandez’ historic start was told from the fan’s POV... and no one even knew we were there. And because of the fans, it’s a story you’d watch again today.
Felix Hernandez - The Perfect Game
Engage. Entertain. Inspire.
Do you know the flags that line the ballpark’s city view reflect the team’s standings? Or that baseballs get rubbed down before each game? Do you know how many hotdogs it takes to feed a fan base? What umpires talk about before the game? That there is no cheering allowed in the Press Box but that you could listen to visiting reporters talk baseball over a beer at Hatback? Do you know Julio’s favorite pregame meal? Or who makes it? Or what the connection is between the group of fans that occupy section 320? Did you know that the M’s organization builds baseball diamonds in the community? Or that they support local charities like “Make A Wish” and routinely reach out to make baseball fans’ dreams come true? Each episode of “Homestand” is designed to enhance a fan’s experience of the game and the ballpark.
Execution.
Should there be interest from the organization to explore “Homestand” as episodic content, there will need to be further development both to establish a desirable structure as well as to discover possible production efficiencies. But to give a working budgetary figure using The Distillery as a production partner, figure $5,000.00 per game to engage. This price reflects the small footprint of 4 filmmakers... 2 separate camera crews consisting of 2 people each, for each game necessary. Similarly, a working figure for the Editorial and Post-production required for each episode is estimated at 1 weeks’ time at $7500.00. These figures, $5,000.00 per game to film and $7500 per episode to edit, are intended to be as aggressive as possible to facilitate the development of this kind of content. As in all production, the resources required are an act of creative problem solving and subject to change as the concept develops.
Implementation.
We see many possibilities for development:
An decision could be made to shoot a single Homestand in order to develop the content through a pilot.
The Organization, together with The Distillery, could explore developing the concept as programming that may interest your partners at ROOT Sports.
Unique segments could be lifted from the concept as a whole and be produced independently as desired.
The “Homestand” concept can be light on production, utilizing content that you already own from your in-house cameras and ROOT Sports broadcasts where The Distillery provides creative direction, scriptwriting, and editorial functions. Much as we did for the 2022 Postseason with the “Goodbye, baseball” script, below.
All ideas grow through partnership. We have ideas. And we are all ears.
Much Respect,
The Distillery
