Fabian Valdez is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Millennium for AZPreps365.com

Millennium’s Film and TV production class has taken up broadcasting school sporting events this year, leading to more opportunities for students and more revenue for the school. 

The class is taught by Tigers varsity baseball coach Matthew Royal, who has taken the lead in broadcasting Millennium sports, something that is new for the school. While broadcasting is new for students, working in the reporting and digital space is not. 

“We kind of focus on the industry process of making a movie, going through pre-production, production and post, camera work, equipment, sets, working with actors, the list goes on and on,” Royal said. 

“We have a news show that we run every week called MTV news and the kids just make announcements, hype videos, little skits and we kind of run it like a news room where we have a production meeting and identify a lineup for that week and assign roles.” 

Millennium decided to broadcast its athletic events largely in response to COVID-19 and the loss of fans attending games. While the Tigers allow the parents of players and a set number of fans into the game, they are still focused on social distancing. By broadcasting their games, they can help combat chances of the virus being spread. 

“When COVID first came down, we had to give our fans and our community the opportunity to attend athletic events, that just became a priority,” Royal said. “Our school was kind of one of the first ones in the district to jump on it because we had the capabilities.” 

Alongside Royal is Joey Mescaro, a former student, who is helping to provide commentary of the games until students who are in the production class are ready to step in. 

“He does football with me Friday nights, he’s my color guy, I usually bring in a current student to run the camera,” Royal said. ”When baseball season hits, Joey’s going to be the one that runs it while I’m on the field.”

Currently Royal plans for broadcasting to become a part of his Film and TV production class and to get students to call and announce games instead of him. This plan would include more equipment, more students on the team and more time exerted for the broadcast. 

According to Remigio Gordillo, Millennium’s athletic director, the school is currently looking at possibly expanding their involvement with broadcast and forming an entirely new class that focuses solely on sports broadcasting. 

“I have always believed there is a void in sports broadcasting at schools. This will give our students real world experience at something they are passionate about, potentially making a career of (it),” Gordillo said. 

From Royal's understanding, he has the full support of the school to run with this idea. He has been told that they will get him what he needs in order to make the system run smoothly and efficiently for the students. 

The introduction of broadcasting games will allow Millennium to generate revenue during this difficult time by selling tickets to the broadcast and allowing fans to watch the game online. 

“It generates revenue for the school, if we only allow 100 fans into a football game we can still turn around and sell 150-200 broadcast tickets where you pay your ticket, you get the link and you can watch the game from home,” Royal said. 

While sports called for an immediate response to the current state of the world, Royal is not limiting the school’s broadcast vision to only athletics. 

“Our theatre production when they start plays, we can live stream these plays. We can do choir concerts and band concerts,” Royal said. “Anything that's going on on campus where we’re going to have an audience, we can produce a live stream for.”

For the future, Royal has big plans for the sports broadcasting side of athletic events that include more ways to generate revenue and promote the school and its athletes.

“The goal as we move through this and gain the experience is to have a little version of ESPN right here in our own backyard,” Royal said. “Every single program is going to have a unique experience based on who they're playing and who's on the team.”

“We’re gonna create commercials for halftimes, we’re gonna sell sponsorship and advertisement opportunities,” he added. “The directions that this can go, I mean it’s countless, we have a lot of opportunities here.”

Despite the possibility of revenue and market growth, Millennium and Royal's end goal is to provide the students with new opportunities and give them the tools they need to be successful in the world of broadcast and digital media. 

“The goal is to turn it into an entire student run organization,” Royal said. 

Millennium’s live broadcasts can currently be found streaming on their YouTube page where fans can watch the Tigers take on their opponents from the comfort of their own home.