INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Pete Soto has been working on sports gameday productions for almost three decades. He is the Vice President and Executive Producer of Fan Experience and Production for the Chargers.
“I grew up playing football, and you know, this is the closest I’m going to get to the NFL field, and I love it,” said Soto.
The 2020 football season, however, has been an entirely new experience. Soto’s whole job is to put on a show for the fans watching the game, but as of now, no one is there to see it. There are stats being shown, pregame shows being aired, hype graphics, and sounds being played to an empty venue.
“To give a sense of normalcy, really, to have that noise, that ambiance, and that energy that you would normally get in a football game,” explained Soto.
It’s also a chance to master production in the Chargers’ massive new world class home with a little less stress.
“It’s almost a blessing in disguise because the room is very complex,” Soto added. “It really gives us the opportunity to get our reps in, learning the control room, and learning its capabilities without 70,000 eyes staring at it.”
Of course, the Rams have been going through the same process as well. And even though there have been no game spectators, Sofi Stadium hosted small events earlier this year like Issa Rae’s Emmy party in September and Mark Ridley-Thomas’s birthday bash in November with DJ L-Double-E on the turn tables.
As for Soto, he’s working out all the kinks so both he and the new Inglewood stadium can be ready for Chargers fans when the 2021 season arrives.
“There’s no stadium in the planet like this – when fans come here, it’s nothing like you’ve ever seen before,” he said.