FACT. There have been fewer Ringmasters of the Greatest Show On Earth® than Presidents of these United States. 36 to be exact and arguably such a grand position and title stand as a mere SUBTITLE in both form and function to the New York Football Giants, Director of Production, Christine Baluyot. Let’s meet our Ringmaster Extraordinaire aka Game Day Producer and sample from behind the scenes some of what has to happen for a fan to enjoy a game, players to remain motivated and the owners to operate successfully.

Metlife Stadium Control Room

Someone’s got to

pull it all together and that someone is the very talented Christine.

Like every legendary stadium, I take you back to perhaps one of the most iconic, the Colosseum, Rome. Why, you may ask? Not to compare eaches technical achievements as they, Metlife Stadium and the Colosseum, represent state of the art at the time but rather to connect a tradition of the past that rings true through to this very day. THE RUNDOWN.

If Christine had an instruction manual for Game Day Assembly, it would resemble nothing like the couple a pieces of paper that fly out of an IKEA box just after the nut’s, bolts and hex wrench. I’d say close your eyes and envision the old Sears Parts and Tools Catalog. A substantial book with nearly everything anyone would ever need to create something. The hitch is putting it all together to produce something that worked. Christine presents and produces and extraordinary sporting event, read multimedia experience around the focal point of a NFL football game throughout an entire season.

Christine (right)

Rundowns, a tool, “Ring”masterfully employed by Christine to breath life into Aristotle’s old adage “the whole is more than the sum of its parts”. Remove hungry lions, and tigers and bears. Replace with rabid fans and a world-class football team.

What you won’t be reading due to space considerations are the details in the voluminous amount of RUNDOWNS at Christine’s command. What I have figured out was a rather creative “surrogate” for a taste of what comprises essentially the very same basic elements from a historic Colosseum “rundown”. Just multiply that by … let’s say 40 and we get ourselves close to what’s on the plate of our “Game Day Producer”.

RUNDOWN – Parades and Processions at the Colosseum

The order of events on the opening day of a festival of ‘games’ at the Colosseumstarting with the parades and processions:

1. The Opening Parade
2. The entry of the Vestal Virgins and the most important priests, politicians, soldiers and senators of Rome
3. The entry of the Emperor
4. The Religious ceremonies and sacrifices
5. The Games begin and the Entry of the Gladiators take place late afternoon

RUNDOWN – Events at the Colosseum

The order of events run to roughly the same format:

1. The display of exotic and wild animals – morning
2. Animal Hunts – venatores and replicated hunting scenes follow
3. Emperors join in these events, shooting animals using a bow and arrows, from the safety of their Imperial Box
4. The Bestiarii – gladiators fight with mighty wild beasts such as tigers and leopards. Scenery, trees, hillocks and exotic plants add for reality
5. Criminals sentenced to fight wild beasts but without any skills, weapons or armor
6. Meridiani – lightly armed gladiators will fight in the middle of the day, after the wild beast fights
7. Horse racing
8. The Andabatae – the hapless criminals will provided comic relief to the audience. Wearing helmets without an opening for the eyes.
9. At noon the executions were scheduled – tortures and varieties of executions amuse the crowd
10. Late afternoon the most important events of the day – the gladiatorial combats
11. The Gladiator fights started with the Praegenarii who are the ‘opening act’ to fight with a whip, club and shield
12. These preliminaries will then be followed by the proper Gladiatorial fights
13. Various matched pairings of gladiators to follow
14. Optional battle re-enactment.

Fast forward, modern day Christine, her world and toolbox:

MetLife Stadium Facts:

• 800 points of sale screens and terminals
• 2,018 HDTV’s ranging from 20 inch screens in the elevators to 39 x 103 foot inner bowl video boards. In other words, Four 110 foot HDTV’s.
• 82,500 seats
• 1,350 toilets a 56% increase from the old stadium for the trivia crowd!!!
• four massive 30 x 118 foot HD video screens
• 48″ x 2200′ ribbon board that circles in the interior bowl
• 2,100+ HD Monitors throughout stadium
• (20) HD video pylons ranging from 20′-60′, welcome fans all around the stadium

I venture to say that from both an insiders view and the end game experience of the fan, Christine and her team produce weekly ONE HECK OF AN AMAZING EVENT!!!

There is so much more to share on the technical levels as well as a few really interesting and insightful war stories that we at Ferro will bring you in our forthcoming featured articles.

Control Room

Let me close with Christines’ words when we asked her to summarize what exactly she does.

“Basically we are in charge of every screen that’s in that building. Over 2,500 screens, 20 Tower Boards we program which are split into 2 different shows into 3 on one side and a full board on the other side with it’s own show. Obviously, the 4 Boards that are in blow, the ribbons in bowl. I also deal with the live event, pregame, all the different thematic presentations for that game. The halftime show, all the stuff that get’s in during the time outs. Then within the actual game it’s trying to get the fans in, creating a home filed advantage by dictating the flow of the game with music and visuals. Also we provide all the camera angles for the different plays for coaching should the team want to challenge a play. We also are in charge of any live event ½ time show. The Plaza activities have to be managed as well and coordinated with the sponsors’ requirements, even the menus on the clubs and concession stands.”

That’s the “WHAT” of Christines’ role. The “HOW” is even more amazing…
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