EVERYTHING That Goes into the Final 24 Hours of Stadium Preparation for an NFL Game Day

welcome to Baltimore Maryland home of the top seed in the AFC pretty little one take 135 line all right here we go we're getting ready to go late so let's have some fun tonight that was worth the price of admission everybody now let's witness of division tonight we figure that it takes almost seven days to prepare for a game so we got to just cram that into two days when a player comes into the locker room I want that player just to go to the locker and just concentrate on the football game so what we're doing right now we're just laying all the bags out in front of the lockers Nikko is putting up the name plates we already unloaded three trucks there's a lot that goes in so I'm always on the edge you know there's a lot to remember there's a lot of a secluded the final check it's just a the inspection process like this is complete I always start with top to bottom make sure that everybody sort of had helmets that gloves they've got the jersey if it's not on the path to go for the pants game socks then we make sure that they have their fleece in the cold weather rolls and then shoes and that they have right and left shoes so yeah you have to be prepared that's why we carry some equipment and we have so many different options for the guy jackets everything looks nice and pretty you know the only thing is just wait for the players [Music] here we are where's your night gate you can't open the stadium up one people already in fear so that's why I like to get here early so I can find a problem instead of somebody else find the problems and tell me yeah that that's diesel it might be to fill to the top and when he tilt them one two 45 probably leaked out hey is anybody on service oh let's go get some towels here so we don't take it out on the field I was totally back in this business it's management by walking around you know you always welcome to stay d first thing I do is I go to our owner suite you know make sure that's okay the biggest thing I always check and everybody laughs at me but this is the most important thing in the whole suite I do believe is the check for the ice cream you got to make sure we have ice cream I guess the old saying if you come up here then there's a problem you don't get a call up here and everything's working okay I'll put him on probably back twelve fifteen miles on the day of the game I see where we're at right now my heart's 109 so it's up that's up 4200 that's I need to start at 8 o'clock in the morning so we're moving my name is Jay O'Brien I'm the vice president of broadcasting and gameday productions at the Ravens and this is my 15th season with the team I'm anxious about tonight you know the chance to win the division and celebrate that moment with 70,000 fans but also we have so many cool executions planned tonight you know we have team introductions with the lights off that we've rehearsed then we have this mixed reality Raven that were debuting first of its kind we will take camera shots from half throughout the stadium with 70,000 people in the stands and then you will see an augmented reality raven fly through the stadium as if it's real we think it's gonna be an incredible moment Steve and I were watching just the sixteen by nine screen for a couple of rehearsals last night and we were like - that is really cool you know Steve Groff our director he's been in the business a long time and he says that you should always have butterflies on a game day before you're on before you're alive and so I definitely didn't sleep well last [Music] before every game we roll out all these introduction assets we've recovered now we're making sure that everything is talking with should and tonight is kinda special too because we're going lights out with the introduction so we've got a lot of special lighting to light the set away fans don't normally see it on game day so tonight we're trying a brand new scheme where we're using a fog machine a special fog machine assisted with fire jet we don't want to follow to linger too long because it'll be a creative real smoky field and put the later game right so we basically have a really special formulation where the fog comes out I'll hang for 10-15 seconds and then as you can see it's going to speak very quickly we're going to shut it all down and put it all away and be ready for the actual introductions around 810 or so number one thing you gotta do is make sure your wife seat is perfect ready to go every time I used to come up to see or during a game I get a call and I go back downstairs so these two seats 14 and 15 she's been coming to every game since 96 maybe when I get older and retire I'll come to the game so at least I'll have a seat [Music] this is heating place we always have that the employers for the players and the heated benches but we're adding these two radiant heat so we want to make sure that everybody is able to get heat the league has rules as far as when I bring up the Gatorade car has over 50 and this has to be a 250 so we want to make sure that there's enough room for the players to run through and safety is our number one thing to make sure the players are safe you know we've been doing it long enough where we know how to set the trunks off everything is laid out everything is drawn out which trunk goes where from the benches on so each equipment trunk has its place each training trunk has its place because we have to get gear equipment that fast my name is rich Tamayo and I'm the director of guests experience I'm gonna work thank you for being here thank you for being here you doing how are you man good to see you welcome to work always [Applause] good to see you how are you sir we're kind of the crazy Department were the enthusiastic ones we're always happy we try to set the standard funny enough I think we might be the only NFL team who does this we go on a joyride in a golf cart we do this every single game day to welcome our staff we basically come around we put music out there we put candy and truly the world welcome because we can't do what we do at the stadium without the people who work here hates didn't open till 6:20 so we know a lot of people are actually coming from their original jobs we know they've been up early they're gonna get home late but we want to know that we appreciate them being here [Applause] [Music] if we can make one person's day by doing that then we're gonna we're just gonna keep doing it regards to weather and time we're the only team in the NFL that does not have a large 10,000 square foot store when the building was designed there just wasn't really room for a store so we have 17 locations and almost all of them are portable we get here about four hours before gates open which is two hours before game time so you have to think we have all that prep time as well as the two hours when fans start to trickle in we're only open ten days a year so we have ten chances to get it right we can only put out a limited amount of product so we have to have the right product in the right location anything with Lamar Jackson we're trying to get into our stores as quickly as possible so if we win tonight's game will be FC North Division champions so we're gonna pre stage championship product in all of our locations so if we win the game we'll be able to get the product out and start selling it to fans as soon as the game is over and if the Jets win tonight then you just pack this up we pack it all up put back in the warehouse and hope it happens the next week [Music] right now this is just the normal pregame stuff that we do before all the coaches doing the adjustments during the game you know we embroider the hats you know for certain guys so we know but if he's like the d-line says here he may have his helmet on the helmet warmer and if he's sitting there with the hats we had this velcro and then they they can grab a hat and put it on the get-go so we just try to make it easy convenient for the guys coming in at all right now we're at least three hours from game time right now by 8 o'clock is Showtime at that point three hours in 10 days 17700 13 steps yeah I got ice cream got a little step up their fire things cool but had to go get my haagen-dazs ice cream some Steve sleep a little tired the adrenaline kicks in no it's game day and it's national that rig it looks very much like the road that the Super Bowl in the AFC will run through this stadium and tonight we could have the coronation of an MVP season for their quarterback lamar jackson let's go through the run now we have pregame warm-ups completely normal after marching Ravens performance we do cats out of intros and then we immediately go to Day of Champions you guys will remember it from last year where we introduced all the high school state football champions we're doing it pregame this time then we go lights-out we do our intro sequence and then we're gonna trigger this augmented reality Raven that is awesome cool all right thanks guys [Music] time is now 6:15 my process we're opening in five minutes I walk the stations make sure all the food is set make sure I'm set with staff to make sure that they know how to clean your presentation is supposed to look garnish that with a little bit more cheese on top I always brag when I have meet other chefs and they would say oh my restaurant holds you know 200 covers like well mine is 70,000 so can't top that our most popular thing here at the stadium is the Maryland crab cake per game we're getting close to seven or eight hundred pounds of crab me I have a team that all they do is crab cakes take some three days to get it all done get it all mixed get it all scooped and as a chef in this building especially I cannot share my recipe for these crab cakes who can say the theory of chef at a stadium for the Baltimore Ravens an exec chef at that weight checking in on the Suites right before push all right before gates which is my kick off making sure food is set locked and loaded every game we're preparing for on average one hundred and twenty seven sweets here at M&T Bank Stadium new to the menu this year flaming hot mac and cheese looks pretty cool we open in a few like five minutes get it in the bowl get gloves on get it in the bowl and let's get rid of this looking to see if fans coming in that's the most exciting part of me the last time I'd seen what a Super Bowl rushing more than that you gotta go back to 2005 that when the Steelers did it so it's obviously not something we see every day but what do you guys think absolutely think I can run win a Super Bowl with this run for his office because of all the things that they have around Thursday Night Football is different because it's a lot more media equipment a lot more media personnel so there's there's a whole lot more working parts and moving parts for setup setup for this game than a normal one o'clock Sunday so what's gates open obviously all of our pushers ticket takers Lite security all the screeners at the gates will do all the guest screening and checks concession stands are starting obviously to ramp up now and what we're doing here really is just making sure cameras and the positions we want them for the for the ingress the traffic cameras on the on the outside traffic and those guys are looking at any potential traffic issues to reroute folks that need to be the state highway can change overhead message boards now it's time to put all those things into action and roll around 90 minutes before kickoff we do a 30-minute standstill performance outside of Camden Yards the band adds so much to the gameday experience this is our 72nd season he's formed in 1947 as the Baltimore Colts band [Music] from there we march down our Ravens walk and we get to the underpass where most of the fans tend to be we play our seven nation army and fight song and we get everyone and it became the experience [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] over 60% of our fans who come to that to our game come down Ravens walk so they march down Ravens walk and then our fans will just file and behind them and that's that's their signal to know it's time to get into the stadium when you get to the end the Ravens walking you cross over onto the plaza so we have our Johnny Unitas statue and Ray Lewis and one of our best fan traditions over the years was before Ray's statue was up everybody had to rub the shoe of Johnny Unitas and if you look at it the tip of the toe is it is a different color because everybody rubs the toe so now what you see is people rub the toe and then they have to go over and give ray a little love too so it's a really cool Baltimore tradition that was become a superstition for a lot of our fans you got to rub the shoe before you go in to be chants 5 & 8 Baltimore Ravens were the greatest regular-season streaks at the modern era and the greatest in Ravens history [Music] my name is Brandon Williams and I impo official mascot of the Baltimore Ravens I always make sure that wherever I am on the field I know even just one person's watching me I got to do the big wall I got to have arms swinging the whole time I got to have doing you know the big legs even just if I'm just going from point A to point B because somebody's watching the dances changed it seems like every three months so I'm constantly having to learn these new dances they lose their minds just for doing a simple dance like the floss the kids see po do it and they go nuts after 16 years none of that is worn off on how amazing it is to be a part of game day to be a part of just a 70,000 people and getting that ready and just really a small part of getting them going and giving them that experience that is beyond just what goes on on the field we have our two Ravens here that we take the field and that's rise and conquer the team contacted us about 11 years ago now and asked us if we had Ravens that we could use for mascots and we said no but I can get them so we contacted another facility called him and asked him for very specific traits in Ravens and he picked out the tumors perfect Birds for us so their training began immediately so I made sure that they were used to light turning on the middle of the night they were used to flashing light so they got very used to a disco ball and lights going on at 2:00 a.m. and I would turn on the radio mostly 98 rock really loud so that they were used to rap music and loud music so that they didn't spook easily because at the stadium or hit with a number of stimulus from all different directions all different varieties and they had to ignore all of that [Applause] you guys coming into the season we knew he was exciting but we didn't know whom our gesture could be this dominant and now the MVP front runner leads the hottest team in the NFL [Music] so we have about 30 minutes to kick right now so now we're just doing radio checks making sure we got communication down our marching band will perform to kind of start the 23 minute clock and then we're ready to ready to roll with the show it's almost game time I'm controlling with my headset and walk with my earpiece getting the players ready for starting entrance one of my gameday rituals is I always wear my two Super Bowl rings so the play to see them right before they walk out yep it's the last off go to countdown the intros go to your Gaucho and Gopi a Ravens fans player introductions are ten minutes away and send the cheerleaders who's pretty 3d three regular one take one penny fine I take five we got into it a touch late so we might be a touch late coming out send the first team hey Elsa what's going on here hey also what's going on tonight our Baltimore Ravens cheerleaders will welcome the barrel of public and private high school champion teams to the field and introduce color guard please welcome representatives of the Army Navy Air Force Marines and Coast Gross's equipment trucks got all the way that was really nice okay we're at 1330 of the clocks over one minute thirty seconds in the raisins believing the locker room introduce the visitors and send them go PA now introducing the New York Jets I'm trying to got it breathing they got the license stuff right here I'm trying to drive it up oh just got a plan to see you left oh yeah yeah that's a bit all right here we go we're getting ready to go late so let's have some fun tonight I'm ready black in five four three two one take us the black I patty you have enough people to send ladies and gentle [Music] first line PA now introducing those started over and Hayden send'em number 80 would hated and last time Pro Bowler running back toppers puppy would barge in girl tandem numerator we're 30 seconds anthem and lights back up in three two one lights up good job good job good job everybody welcome to Thursday Night Football on Fox presented by Bud Light Platinum welcome to Baltimore Maryland home of the top seed in the AFC playoff chase the Baltimore Ravens Eddie Lebanon to taking on the New York Jets tonight coming in at five and eight anthem audio intro in three two one go anthem intro then you know our national anthem written here in Baltimore please welcome back by CEO Miller and go he's got to move a little bit yeah he's fine actually [Music] [Applause] great great job perfect timing I take your flags down yeah we're ready and go track burn what do you be ready with a kickoff song [Applause] hit it already make their ears bleed they're on a nine-game winning streak they are 11 and 2 for the first time in franchise history and the number one seed in the AFC glad you're with us tonight on Fox

Channel: NFL Media Originals

Views: 2,579,174

Rating: 4.9200191 out of 5

Keywords: nfl, nfl network, football, american football, coutndown to kickoff, baltimore ravens, ravens coutndown to kickoff, what goes into preparing an nfl stadium for gameday, EVERYTHING That Goes into the Final 24 Hours of Stadium Preparation for an NFL Game Day

Id: Pj9eYlTM1ls

Length: 21min 58sec (1318 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/breakers]

Video blocked by NFL

[u/mattjeast]

Gotta admit that AR raven was pretty badass... haha.

[u/Bandwidth_Wasted]

That was a pretty awesome behind the scenes look

[u/Mathesar]

I love videos like this, thanks for sharing!