Pacers Sports and Entertainment owns the Indiana Pacers, Fever, and the Gainbridge Fieldhouse arena in downtown Indianapolis. Even with dozens of full-time employees in numerous departments, PSE still relies heavily on freelance employees for the broadcast aspect of the game. With well over 20 main cameras and a state-of-the-art control room, the broadcast department can have over 20-30 people working for them for a single game. This calls for freelance workers who can do the job from day 1 and can
fulfill the numerous jobs and projects that go on before, during, and after the game. Luckily for PSE, they aren’t far away from these freelance workers as many of them are Butler Bulldogs. Butler University’s Sports Media major has quickly become one of the most popular on campus as dozens of students are eager to break into the world of sports broadcasting. This demand for more hands-on experiences from students helped the College of Communication decide to invest in a broadcast truck and all the essential needs for a live broadcast. Thus, Butler Sports Live (BSL) was officially launched in 2022 under Professor Nick White and head engineer David Dutchnowski. Since then, BSL has been an essential part of Sports Media students’ development and gain essential experience that they would not get on many other campuses. BSL covers the majority of Butler’s sports like Football, soccer, volleyball, and women’s basketball. The broadcast is shown live on Flo Sports website and next year they will be broadcasting live on ESPN Plus in a major step for the student-run production company. Students get to experience all aspects of a sports broadcast from cameras to replay and even directing and producing the entire game. This program builds a foundation for future broadcast workers and gets them enough experience to get the attention of PSE. Nick White and PSE broadcast head Brian Rogat arranged to interview BSL employees exclusively to potentially join PSE as part-time employees. Seven BSL students were offered the opportunity to work at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and get the first professional work of their young careers. After completing the rookie training orientation, some have already worked Pacer games as they were either in the control room or all over the arena filming fans. In two weeks, it will be all hands on deck for PSE as the men’s and women’s BIG10 tournaments will take place on top of 9 Pacer home games in March. The new employees will come in right on time as they get to experience the hectic but exciting world of sports broadcasting.
