Moving Monday Night Football outdoors in Minnesota was a logistical nightmare, find out how ESPN's production crew made it look seamless
Producing a live event the size of Monday Night Football is hard work. Under normal circumstances the production crew will begin game preparations on Thursday for a Monday night game. Imagine that, it takes 4 days of preparation, set-up and testing for one game.
There were not normal circumstances for the final game of week 15 . The battle between the Bears and Vikings couldn’t take place at it’s scheduled venue inside the temperature controlled Metrodome because the roof had collapsed under the weight of a snowstorm, and wasn’t going to be fixed in time for Monday Night Football. The setting had to change, the game was moving outdoors to TCF Bank Stadium.
The Monday Night Football Production crew got thrown an audible, no time to complain, only time to work. Brian Hegner, ESPN Director II gave SportsTVJobs.com an exclusive look into how his team weathered the storm:
On December 16th it was officially announced that the December 20th Monday Night Football game, the Bears versus the Vikings, would be played at TCF Stadium, on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Through the next 72 hours, the Monday Night Countdown crew put together a show in some of the most adverse conditions we’ve ever encountered.
Authors bio is coming up shortly.
