I did a big piece in Wednesday’s USA Today on the Bears’ new multimedia center at their team headquarters in Halas Hall. It really is extraordinary, showing how NFL teams now are diving in even deeper as content companies.
This isn’t about controlling the message; it is about monetizing the message.
Here are a couple of excerpts:
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LAKE FOREST, Ill. — It is late Monday afternoon, and the shade starts to hover over the idle practice field. Halas Hall, the Chicago Bears headquarters, is relatively quiet the day after a tough and costly loss to the Washington Redskins, a game that saw the team lose quarterback Jay Cutler and linebacker Lance Briggs to injuries.
But in another part of the facility, activity is ramping up. Bright lights flash on, and men test four cameras positions in the shiny new broadcast studio. Host Chris Boden and analyst Dan Jiggetts go over their notes for the last time in preparation for Bears Recap, which will air shortly on Comcast Sports Net Chicago.
Jiggetts, an offensive tackle for the Bears from 1976 to 1982, takes a long look at his lavish surroundings, which went live last week. He has memories of playing in relatively spartan digs during an era when owner George Halas, who died in 1983, kept a firm grip on his wallet.
“This is such a huge leap forward,” Jiggetts said. “I wonder what the old man would think of this.”
The Bears, a franchise once accused of being stuck in the 19th century, have taken a bold move into the 21st century by building the most advanced in-house multimedia facility in the NFL. Much of the 40,000-square-foot addition to Halas Hall features state-of-the-art TV and radio studios; deluxe new interview rooms for use by the team and network studio shows; and a technical center, Bears director of broadcasting Greg Miller says, capable of operating a network. There also is event space, allowing the team to bring in studio audiences for shows.
When asked if any team in the NFL has a similar facility, Miller said, “No, but they will.”
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The in-house setup, though, does raise the question of whether teams such as the Bears are trying to control the message. Is this an attempt to provide a more sanitized perspective to fans?
Phillips denied that media control was the motivation.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 30 years with the Bears, it’s that you can’t control the message,” he said.
Jiggetts, who does analysis for several Bears-produced shows, says the team hasn’t tried to censor him. He discussed Monday the Bears’ shortcomings in their loss to the Redskins, especially with a defense that gave up 499 yards.
“When I played, we used to say, ‘The eye in the sky don’t lie,'” Jiggetts said. “Everyone is sophisticated enough to appreciate the truth.”
Yet there is an element of trying to frame the coverage beyond what the team receives locally and from the networks.
Phillips notes Bears-produced content allows the team to showcase community initiatives and go behind the scenes for features that spotlight a player away from the field.
Irving Rein, a communications professor at Northwestern who has written extensively on sports marketing and media, says in-house production enables the Bears to control and monetize the content.
“I think it definitely is both,” Rein said. “If you are producing the product, you have control over the message. Part of it is in response to what’s going on with the Internet. It’s difficult to get a message through unadulterated. You’ve got a lot of clutter. They couldn’t control the message if a third party was doing it.”
