Eau Claire Express, Madison Mallards and Mankato Habaneros are this year’s winners
Rochester, Minn. – The Northwoods League has announced that the Eau Claire Express, Madison Mallards and Mankato Habaneros are the organizations who have won the 2024 Northwoods League Best Video Production Game Coverage awards.
The Northwoods League Best Video Production Game Coverage award is presented to a team in each division, as well as each baseball and softball league that is considered to consistently produce the best coverage of its’ games. The award recognizes that to constantly produce and broadcast with high quality requires a production team working together to ensure that the camera work, graphics, announcing, audio and additional attention to detail are at an elite level.
“The Eau Claire Express, Madison Mallards and Mankato Habaneros organizations earned this award,” commented Glen Showalter, President of the Great Plains Division. “Their video production game coverage was excellent, and they can be proud of the viewing experience they provided to Northwoods League fans. Hats off to them and congratulations on a job well done.”
The Eau Claire Express were awarded the best game coverage in the Great Plains Division and the Madison Mallards were awarded best game coverage in the Great Lakes Division for Northwoods League Baseball. The Mankato Habaneros were awarded the best game coverage for Northwoods League Softball this season.
“We couldn’t be happier that our broadcast team was recognized at the League level for their hard work and dedication! Our interns showed up every day with unique and creative ways to bring the Mallards and Night Mares games to streaming. Each of them has an incredibly bright broadcasting future ahead!” said Kyle Chisholm, Marketing Director of the Madison Mallards and Madison Nightmares, who oversees the Madison video production.
The Northwoods League experienced a significant increase in viewership throughout the 2024 season. The League continued to partner with ESPN+, streaming over 170 games on the platform this season. The Northwoods League also developed its inaugural 24-hour ‘FAST’ channel called the Northwoods League Network, which broadcasted live games, replay games, as well as producing shows that centered on the League and its players. The League saw over two million unique viewers tune in for its live games during the season and totaled over five million unique viewers to its live games, replay games, as well as shows that were created for the 2024 season.
Mankato Habaneros and Mankato MoonDogs Creative Director Tyler Haack commented, “It is a true honor for our production team to receive such an award, it shows that the hard work our team puts in on a day-to-day basis yields successful results. We hope this is the first of many awards as we continue to put together one of the top production teams in the League.”
In addition to games on ESPN, the Northwoods League offered its streaming service Free to the viewing public once again in 2024, which included games streamed live, on-demand, as well as League-focused shows for additional viewership.
Eau Claire Express General Manager Sammi Costello noted, “It’s a huge honor and accomplishment to be given Broadcast of the Year for the Great Plains Division. This is something we have been working on for the last few years and had a great production crew that was able to make it happen. We couldn’t have done this without Ben Peterson, Pete Knutson and Oscar Sexuar, and all our camera operators.”
Fans can watch Northwoods League games on their own televisions using Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku and Android TV, in addition to being able to watch them on their PC, mobile device or tablet.
Northwoods League teams recruit talented individuals for their video production teams every season, many of which are in excellent college broadcasting programs at top level colleges. These webcasting teams consist of directors, announcers, producers, and camera operators, all of which must work together to produce and stream quality games for the viewers.
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The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 31st season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in history with 26 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires, and front office staff, over 370 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series Champion Max Scherzer (TEX), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford (STL) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (ATL). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and 2019/2021 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and 2023 World Series Champion, MLB All-Star, MLB Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner and two-time All-MLB first team shortstop Marcus Semien (TEX). League games are viewable live on Northwoods League+ (at watch.northwoodsleague.com), ESPN+, and the Northwoods League Network.
Leveraging the 31-year success of the Northwoods League, the first for-profit Summer Collegiate Baseball League, Northwoods League Softball (NWLS) is the first for-profit Women’s Summer Collegiate Softball League beginning play in the Upper Midwest in the summer of 2024. The purpose of the League will be to develop players for their college, Olympic and future professional play. Teams will be promoted similar to minor league baseball teams, playing games in front of fans in a fun, friendly, family-oriented environment.