USL and NEP Ready for Largest USL Championship Final Production Ever

The broadcast from Tulsa, OK, will air CBS and TUDN on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET

The USL heads into this weekend’s Championship Final riding a wave of significant growth and has even more planned in the coming years. So it’s not surprising that the broadcast from Tulsa, OK – which is being handled by the league and NEP Group and will be carried on CBS, Paramount+, and TUDN – will be the largest to date.

“This is my favorite time of the season,” says Matt Fischer, VP, Media, USL. “It’s a season’s worth of work all rolled up into one week. As the USL continues to grow, we’re seeing passionate fanbases pop up all over the country so it’s special to be on the ground [in Tulsa] and take it all in.”

Bulking Up for the Big Finale: Drone, Jib, Robos, Slo-Mo’s, and Piero 

Working with NEP, the USL has been able to bring a drone on every network show this season. Along with the drone, the 16-camera complement in Tulsa will have a jib and a RF shallow-depth-of-field gimbal to capture dramatic shots from both the field and the stands. The game will also have super-slo-mo robos in both nets and two additional super-slo-mo cameras covering the field. The production team has also deployed Ross Video’s Piero sports-graphics-analysis platform throughout the season and it will play a key role in the production of the Final on Saturday.

“From a partnership perspective, our partners at CBS and ESPN have allowed us to push the envelope this season,” says Fischer. “Ross Piero is adding a new layer of analytics and value to our production. That’s made the trip with us to not only add sponsor value but entertainment value…from a fan engagement perspective.”

NEP’s NCP7 A and B mobile units are on-site at ONEOK Field in Tulsa to serve as the production hub. The live feed will be sent to CBS via Satellite, as well as to NEP Production Hub South Florida for International, Sirius XM, and highlight distribution.

“The growth of USL is undeniable and NEP is thrilled to provide the firepower for the largest Final production in the league’s history,” says Mike Freedman, VP and Executive Producer, NEP Connected Solutions. “From our connected solutions ecosystem we have mobile units, specialty capture solutions and production services all supporting the broadcast delivery, a fitting range of services to cap off a tremendous season.”

A Short Turnaround: Less Than a Week to Bring It all Together in Tulsa

Although it all came together in less than a week – after Tulsa won the Western Conference last Saturday and earned the right to host – planning for the final started nearly two months ago when the USL and NEP began evaluating the various host options. The league then began gathering traveling info the week leading up to the Conference Final while NEP put crews on hold in the event of an East or West Coast host.

“Luckily, we’ve been using a similar cadence for quite some time so from an operations perspective, we’re used to it,” says Fischer. “It’s all about preparation and each venue presents unique challenges and opportunities. To get ahead of those we incorporated site surveys while relying on the hosts themselves to walk us through what works and what doesn’t work. There’s no reason to force what isn’t there, but if we can flip the field for example and give our fans at home a better sense of what we’re expecting to be a sell-out atmosphere in Tulsa, we’ll explore all our options.”

USL has travelled in 20-plus crew members, including producer Sharni Yerke and director Mike Roth at the front bench along with play-by-play caller Mike Watts and analysts Devon Kerr and Marion Crowder in the booth.

Sharni started off producing USL games and is now producing World Cups and Olympics,” says Fischer. “And Mike Roth, our director, and our camera crew, are going to give you some amazing images tomorrow and show you every ounce of emotion this sport draws out of its fans.”

In addition, NEP’s onsite team is led by Erick Falero (Director of Production), Steven Kravitz (Director of Live Events), Ariel Garcia (Broadcast Manager), Cindy Salguero (Broadcast Manager).

“There are always challenges with a championship production of this scale, but the advantage here is our steady partnership with the league, so the cohesion is already there to find creative solutions that make the difference,” says Freedman. “The league does a great job preparing for any scenarios we may face, with virtual site visits and regular conference calls. So the minute we learned we’d be in Tulsa this week it’s like a chain reaction and everyone gets locked in.”

Reflecting on 2025: A Season of Exponential Growth 

Saturday will be the culmination of months of work by both the USL and NEP, which combine to produce every regular season game live for a variety of distribution outlets including CBS, CBSSN, Golazo Network, ESPN2, ESPN+, Peacock, YouTube and WSC (for highlights). These productions are a mix of on-site operation in local markets and REMI operations from the NEP Production Hub South Florida.

“Every season is different,” says Fischer. “We’ve been lucky enough to have a consistent crew at NEP – some of them since 2018 when I first got to USL. But between NEP and our local productions across the country, there’s always going to be turnover.

“I’m really proud of the work done in each of our markets, locally produced and NEP produced, to put on shows that represent what the USL is and what we’re striving to be,” he continues. “There’s no perfect show and there’s always gremlins in the machine if you will, but overall, this has been one of the cleanest seasons to date.”

This weekend is just the latest chapter in a trio of championship events for the USL and NEP, which teamed up to produce the inaugural Super League Championship in June, as well as the League One Final last week.

NEP packages and produces over 500 live broadcasts (a mix of games and other shows) across USL Championship, Super League, and League One each year. That includes more than 40 linear productions for the league across CBS, CBSSN and ESPN2 including the Championship game on CBS. NEP is also the transmission and archive home for USL Championship, Super League and League One.

“The NEP connected solutions and production services teams are constantly preparing the technology needs accordingly,” says Freedman. “It’s a tremendous season-long collaboration [and this] season has been extremely rewarding. Now we’re on to the biggest USL Championship Final in league history, and collectively we couldn’t be prouder of this campaign.”

As the USL looks to grow in the coming years (including plans to institute a promotion and relegation structure in 2027 or 2028), the 2025 season marked a major step forward for league, especially when it comes to broadcast operations. After clubs began negotiating local TV deals in 2024, Fischer and his team in Tampa worked with NEP to update graphics packages across the board. Since then, live broadcasts have become more sophisticated and continue to add new technology.

With a record crowd in Knoxville last weekend at the League One Final, a record crowd at the League Two Final in Vermont, and an entire season sold out in Portland Maine, Fischer believes it’s up to his team make fans at home “feel like they’re missing out. While that’s not broadcast-specific, we’ve been telling these stories for years and the overall picture is coming together.”

“This is thousands of hours of work that’s not seen on tv and thousands of hours more that are seen on tv,” continues Fischer. “It’s meeting after meeting to see what matches fit with what windows on what network. Behind the scenes, we all have a sense of pride and accomplishment. There’s a sense of trust within this group that makes this production so special and makes the nights, weekends, and every single moment along the way worth it.”

FC Tulsa hosts Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in the 2025 USL Championship Final on Saturday at ONEOK Field in the culmination of the league’s 15th season. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. ET on the CBS Television Network, TUDN and SiriusXM FC.