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MLB Unveils The 2nd Edition of The Fan Cave

Posted by on Apr 2, 2012 12:10

Last year, Major League Baseball announced an initiative that was good in theory, but wasn’t carried out all too well. It had two fans watch every single MLB game in what it dubbed its “Fan Cave” and had two guys occupy it for the entire season. Unfortunately, MLB didn’t take care of one of its fastest growing segments of fans, women.

I’m glad to say MLB took care of that and also expanded the number of people who will take part in the “Fan Cave” this year. Overall, nine people will occupy the place and like “Survivor,” one fan will be eliminated throughout the season until a winner is crowned and has spent the entire season in the Cave. Don’t quite understand that concept, but anything to keep interest. Why not have Mark Burnett, Executive Producer of Survivor come in and create a reality show for this?

Anyway, MLB has a press release announcing the new Fan Cave, the “Cave Dwellers” and a new concert series that will most likely tie up traffic and wreak havoc in a busy part of NYC.

NEWLY REDESIGNED MLB FAN CAVE UNVEILED, WITH CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN FEATURES INCLUDING 45 SONY TVS, STADIUM LIGHTING AND A TEN-FOOT TUBE SLIDE

New MLBFanCave.com Concert Series to Launch in April with Performances By The Fray, Daughtry, Far East Movement and Aaron Lewis
MLB All-Stars Josh Johnson, Joe Mauer, Dan Uggla and Justin Verlander to Visit in April

Major League Baseball today opened the doors to the newly redesigned MLB Fan Cave, which will host a series of fan events, concerts, MLB player and celebrity appearances, and nine die-hard baseball fans who will be in the running to watch every game of the 2012 MLB season.

With new features such as a ten-foot tube slide, a Dirt Bar where fans can get authentic dirt from MLB ballparks and a larger wall of big screen HD televisions, the MLB Fan Cave has a new look both inside and out.  The Fan Cave’s exterior windows will be wrapped in a giant translucent image of fans in a ballpark visible from across the street while still allowing fans to see inside when close to the windows.  Lit by a bank of 125 custom stadium lighting fixtures, the light emanating from the Fan Cave will be unmistakable and visible to fans from blocks away.

Major League Baseball will launch the MLBFanCave.com Concert Series that will feature performances throughout the season by popular recording artists. The April Concert Series lineup includes:

  • Aaron Lewis (“It’s Been A While”, “Outside”, “Country Boy”, “Endless Summer”) – April 4, 5pm
  • Far East Movement (“Like A G6” and “Rocketeer”) – April 4, 8pm
  • The Fray (“How to Save a Life”, “You Found Me” and “Over My Head”) – April 13, 1pm
  • Daughtry (“It’s Not Over”, “Home” and “What About Now?”) – April 26, 6pm

The MLBFanCave.com Concert Series will continue a long tradition of music at the Fan Cave’s location, which is the former home of the iconic Tower Records on 4th Street & Broadway in New York City’s Greenwich Village area.  These four performances and others throughout the year will be free and open to fans, with highlights appearing on MLBFanCave.com.  More information on how fans can attend these and other concerts will be available on the MLB Fan Cave’s Twitter and Facebook channels.

The MLB Fan Cave will host a continuous series of player appearances throughout the season.  MLB All-Stars scheduled to appear in April include Josh Johnson, Joe Mauer, Dan Uggla and Justin Verlander.  When they visit the Fan Cave, players will appear in a video web series that will showcase their personalities and interests in an entertaining way.  P3 ENTERTAINMENT, a New York City-based production company specializing in high-end digital and broadcast production, will direct and produce the series that will be available to fans through social media channels and on MLBFanCave.com.

Last month, MLB revealed the nine “Cave Dwellers” – Ashley Chavez, Benjamin Christensen, Lindsay Guentzel, Shaun Kippins, Gordon Mack, Ricardo Marquez, Ricky Mast, Eddie Mata and Kyle Thompson – who will begin the season in the Fan Cave, watch every single MLB game each day, and chronicle their experiences via social media (bios here).  Throughout the season, Cave Dwellers will be eliminated until a winner is crowned by the end of the 2012 World Series.

“The inaugural MLB Fan Cave presented baseball and its players in a creative and relevant way making the project extraordinarily popular among fans, especially younger ones,” said Tim Brosnan, MLB Executive Vice President, Business.  “The new design of the Fan Cave, coupled with increased interest among players and entertainers and more Cave Dwellers, allows us to add some new elements while keeping the same approach that was so popular last year.  The MLB Fan Cave will grow dramatically in year two, entertaining both avid and casual fans through social media in a unique fashion.”

MLB teamed with environment and installation designer Mike Brown and his team at Lot71 to  remodel the exterior and top two floors of the MLB Fan Cave. MLB also worked with Lillian August, the interior design and home furnishings company, and one of their Senior Designers Angela Camarda, to redesign the downstairs VIP Lounge at the Fan Cave, featuring a sleek and posh new design including modern furniture, special lighting, multiple exclusive areas, a DJ booth and a 15-foot “Bottoms-Up Bar” featuring the new “bottoms-up” beer dispenser.

Highlights of the new MLB Fan Cave design include (click here for a photo gallery):

  • A ten-foot tall orange tube slide.
  • 45 HD TVs across more than a dozen locations, totalling more than 2,100 inches of screen space.
  • A “Dirt Bar,” where fans can get authentic dirt from all 30 ballparks.
  • A new Rooftop on the second floor, where visitors will be able to Go To Bat for charity by participating in a virtual “Home Run Derby” on the latest MLB-licensed video games.
  • A redesigned Porch area, evocative of similar spaces at multiple ballparks, along with a tribute to the stars of the popular “Field of Dreams” promotion.
  • A game area featuring a custom MLB Fan Cave billiards table, shuffleboard, an 11×3’ race track, 28 Etch A Sketches wall-mounted with velcro and a magnetic oversized Scrabble board.
  • A new digital scoreboard to keep track of games watched and games remaining in the MLB season, projected on a pair of 60-inch TVs facing out onto Broadway.
  • A digital photo booth featuring a 65-inch TV connected to a laptop with software allowing visitors to take, enhance and print photos of themselves on the spot.
  • A pair of framed speaker art pieces that are able to connect to any mobile device via bluetooth and play music projected throughout the Fan Cave.
  • Furniture pieces, including a large sectional couch shipped from Italy for the main set area.
  • A signature wall for players and celebrity visitors featuring 1,300 baseball skins.
  • As an homage to the former tenant of the space, an original Tower Records sign that previously hung in the location for decades.
  • A gallery of art by Jason Borbay and Dan Fenelon, featuring QR codes on each piece that link to more information on the art and artists.
  • An in-house PA system for announcing visitors, along with a front atrium graced with a chandelier made from oversized loudspeakers.
  • A panel of four 32” TVs that will serve as a live social media station, updating regularly with the latest content from the MLB Fan Cave Facebook and Twitter feeds.
  • An 11-foot neon ballpark structure suspended 10 feet off the ground near the front entrance.
  • A graffiti wall painted by local artist Matt “Slim” Campbell.

The MLB Fan Cave will also be the remote studio home for a number of national television and radio shows throughout the season. For Opening Week, ESPN’s popular national show Mike & Mike in the Morning (starring Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, 6-10am ET) will conduct its show live from the Fan Cave on April 4 & 5, the mornings of Opening Night and Opening Day, respectively.  Also on April 5, MLB Network’s Intentional Talk (starring Chris Rose and Kevin Millar, 5-6pm ET) will shoot its show live from the Cave. Throughout the season, the MLB Fan Cave and the Cave Dwellers will contribute via social media and make weekly appearances on the MLB Player Poll, a new show by MLB Productions airing Saturdays during the regular season on FOX.  

Supported by MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball and industry standard bearer for technology in digital media, the Cave Dwellers will participate in season-long contests through MLB.com’s original programming and interactive games, where they will join millions of baseball fans playing fantasy baseball games such as Beat the Streak and its $5.6 million grand prize.

Awarded “Best Use of Social Media for Sports” at last week’s 4th Annual Shorty Awards, the MLB Fan Cave generated more than 300 million social media impressions since its inception.  Fans can follow all of the activity at MLBFanCave.com, on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mlbfancave) and Twitter (@MLBFanCave).

That’s all.

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013. He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television. Fang celebrates the three Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.

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