In a sense, Robert Roselli will be playing the ultimate video game. He will be wearing a headset and will have about 30 other co-gamers wired in. It’s the ultimate controller. Roselli will be pushing buttons at a whim, measuring the pulse of what his eyes are seeing in front of him and reacting to […]
In a sense, Robert Roselli will be playing the ultimate video game. He will be wearing a headset and will have about 30 other co-gamers wired in. It’s the ultimate controller. Roselli will be pushing buttons at a whim, measuring the pulse of what his eyes are seeing in front of him and reacting to it in real-time.
He’s Miami’s new Associate AD Marketing. To put that title in simple terms, he is the Executive Producer of the amped-up Game Day Production that you will experience this season at Hard Rock Stadium, beginning Sunday night when the ultimate opponent, the ultimate foil, arrives in the colors of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
On one of his first days on the job at The U, Roselli tweeted this:
“To recap, re UM-ND 2017 — @Kirk Herbstreit said it was the loudest stadium he’d ever heard. A ND lineman said the noise affected their communication. Former ND QB says it was the loudest venue he’d played in. In week 1….IT’S TIME TO TOP IT!”
And that is exactly what he plans……..to empower the fans to do.
“There’s a whole team of marketing folks who have been hard at work putting together these plans throughout the spring and summer,” Roselli said. “You know, to put together a football game day is really quite the endeavor. There’s a lot of people that are involved. There’s a lot of different elements.
“But yeah, we got a couple cool things planned. We’re really trying to focus our messaging on the fact that the crowd can actually impact the game. We think they know that, but we want to make sure that they really, really know that, because no matter what music we play or what video board things we do, or what little tricks we do in terms of game day, at the end of the day, the crowd showing up, all revved up and making an impact, is what ultimately is going to create chaos for the opponent, right?”
Some of the experience will be scripted like the timed-to-the-second moment before kickoff that ABC plans to televise on its broadcast and in which there is a secret plan to incorporate a celebrity star. A deep CaneSport investigation has revealed that the marquee pre-game performer will be non-other than former national champion coach Jimmy Johnson himself, who enjoyed three victories over Notre Dame including the one that sent Gerry Faust into retirement. That’s all the details we are able to reveal. But it’s believed to be a well-coordinated multi-media performance worthy of the moment that will also include a big flyover of two F-15 and two F16 jets piloted by UM and Notre Dame alumni. If all goes well, the entire scene will be a concert of music and lights.
There are some other things we can tell you about the Hard Rock game plan for this season crafted by Roselli and a growing team of creative talent in the Miami athletic department.
Larry Blocker, a veteran of South Florida in-game entertainment who has worked for the Miami Heat and Miami Marlins through the years, was brought in as a consultant. He will be part of the team on the headsets during the approximate four-hour production. Other key team members are Marketing Director Marlon Clarke, and Production assistants Megan Siebersma, Daniel Toll and Taylor Norton.
There will be some elements that you will recognize. The band and the Ibis will obviously be incorporated. You likely will hear Seven Nation Army and Hells Bells at various points.
But a great deal of what you experience will not be scripted, It will be impromptu and driven by the fans inside the stadium. What are they thinking in any given moment of the game? What are they feeling? What is Notre Dame feeling down there in the inferno that we know that Hard Rock is going to be on Sunday night.
Roselli and team will have the band, the Ibis and as many as 75 videos and music elements available to them at literally the click of a button.
“Our job, game production wise, is to just be ready to give the crowd what they need at any given moment,” Roselli said. “We’re going to try to be less scripted. A lot of places will make a script on a Tuesday and decide here’s how we’re going to do our media breaks, and then they’ll be unwilling to get off those. We will never be unwilling to get off of that. We’re going to try to ride the momentum of the game and make sure that the things that are happening in the timeouts fit what just happened on the football field, and then also fit what we’re about to walk back into on the field.
“So the timeouts, although they can be long, should not be independent of the football game. I’ll be sticking my ear out the window and trying to get a sense of what is the crowd feeling right now. What is the emotion? Are we up? Are we down? Are we worried? Are we relieved? And then giving them a piece of music or a video component that fits that mood. We’re just trying to ride that wave with the crowd and give them what they need.”
Roselli compares himself to Shannon Dawson with a play sheet. He has so many things at his disposal but he still has to be able to make the right call at the right time.
“Here’s what we do for a big kickoff, here’s what we do for a big third down,” he said. “Here’s what we do if it’s a tie game and the other team calls time out. We got 30 seconds right. Having a situational musical or video piece prepared for all of those things is something that we’re really taking seriously this year. That was one thing that I wanted to come in and help make an impact on.”
Roselli has worked at Penn State, Rutgers and FAU in prior stops in his career.
“He was chosen because of his background at P4 places plus his great energy and focus,” Athletic Director Dan Radakovich said. “He wants the crowd to be a factor and will work hard to create the right atmosphere to excite the stadium.”
Roselli has been fortunate to visit a lot of great stadiums in his 12 years around college football. He has seen a lot of game days.
“There are some philosophies that I’m hoping to bring here, but I also know that a Miami crowd can be different than a Big 10 crowd,” he said. “But I do think there’s some things that are proven and true that I know work that we’re hopefully going to be able to implement here.
“There’s certain songs people know the words too, right? And there’s certain songs that people don’t react to. And some may say it’s corny. Some may say, hey, that’s why every stadium uses them. So yeah, lucky to have a really good team here in place. A lot of different perspectives on things. And then, yes, I definitely want to bring some of my perspective from my other stops as well.”
The team includes everybody from the camera folks to the people clicking the videos, to the marketing staff on field and the music operator. They all have to be coordinated and that’s where Roselli will come in. He watched the 2017 UM-Notre Dame game in preparation for what Hard Rock will be Sunday night.
“I’m hopeful that folks will leave that game feeling like, yeah, that just had like a different vibe to it, that the moments match, the music matched what was happening, the video boards matched what was happening, that it was done in a way that the focal point was an intimidating, hostile crowd, not necessarily just a bunch of advertisements,” Roselli said. “So I think some people will notice. I’m hopeful that by the end of the year, our fans will be able to say, yeah, that was an enjoyable game experience that felt like a big-time college football production.”
“That’s what makes college football such a beautiful sight, the crowds, right? So it’s not to say that our crowd doesn’t already know that, or isn’t already a great crowd, but in a way, we are challenging them. We gotta take it to what 2017 was, and maybe even more.”
Category: General Sports
