Sports Broacasting
By Benjamin McDonald“Do you wanna see my World Series rings”?
Tis was a question David Koppett asked me shortly afer our interview concluded. In his unassuming Bay Area home, Emmy award-winning David Koppett has three World Series rings from the amazing Giants’ wins from 2010 to 2014. Koppett ran the broadcast of Giants games during that period and has worked with many other professional sports teams throughout the United States. Te Giants’ victories during those years were some of the most exciting baseball to watch as a child and it is where I truly developed my love of the game. It was amazing to fnd out that a family friend of mine who I had barely met was the executive producer of the Giants. While he spent much of his career with the Giants, Koppett has had many jobs with diferent teams. He has worked almost every job within sports broadcasting. Moving around to diferent teams and states, Koppett has taken many risks that allowed him to be successful in the sports broadcasting industry.
Koppett’s love for sports, specifcally baseball, also started at a young age. He played baseball as a little kid but soon found that he didn’t have much athletic ability. His baseball career ended before high school but during high school, he found his true love in sports broadcasting. Koppett’s father was a famous sports writer and he knew he wanted to do something in sports as well, but found sports writing had become less prominent by then and sports broadcasting was taking over. He began doing the broadcasting for his local high school where he developed a love for it. Tis passion inspired him to then pursue sports broadcasting further in college.
Koppett remembers the early days of his career and the youthful excitement of being in the booth with the announcers. While in college, he had an internship where he did the statistics for the San Francisco Giants. He described it as a “dream come true to be in there with the announcers to watch baseball.” He considers this to be some of the most fun he has ever had in his career. His internship was specifcally with GiantsVision, which was a new pay-per-view channel that he described as not “[knowing] what they were doing.” Koppett fnished his statistics internship and was asked back the next season. He then took a risky leap of faith. He decided to take a quarter of of college specifcally for this internship because it would give him a greater role within GiantsVision. Tis decision let him follow his dreams. Because GiantsVision was so small and new, Koppett found himself doing many diferent jobs within it. Tis allowed him to have lots of experience in almost every job within a sports broadcast from graphics operator to producer. Koppett gained a lot of knowledge in the industry that he explained: Because of the internship, Koppett was hired full-time afer he fnished college to work at GiantsVision. He began working his way up the chain. During this time GiantsVision was bought and restructured several times. It was frst bought and turned into SportsChannel, then bought by Fox and then Comcast where it became part of NBC Sports. Tis made Koppetts’ job even more involved because he worked more than just baseball. But this was not a problem, because of his earlier life lesson to take risks and try new things. He ended up doing the San Jose Sharks and the San Francisco Giants. At this time he became a game
“started a mindset for me of not being afraid to learn something new.”
producer. A game producer is “the person in charge of getting tonight’s baseball or hockey broadcast on the air” as Koppett describes it. Koppett explains this as some of his favorite times working in the industry as he felt most connected to the game and got to tell the story of the game.
Restructuring is a complex process that happens a lot in the sports broadcasting industry. Restructuring is when a company redoes its structure and hierarchy and typically happens afer a transfer in ownership or when the company is underperforming. In Koppett’s case, the companies he worked for were bought and sold, causing restructuring to happen many times. Koppett believes that restructuring is benefcial for a company because professionalism and resources increases. Tis increase leads to better technology put into the telecasts creating a better experience for the viewer overall. He still sees some negatives in that “things become less informal and just fun.” Some jobs stay stagnant, but the inherent nature of the sports broadcasting industry includes restructuring as a regular risk of the job that Koppett thrives in nonetheless.
One dramatic career shif for Koppett was switching from producing Bay Area hockey and baseball games to producing hockey games in Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tis was a huge change for him as he had mainly stayed in the Bay Area, broadcasting teams he had loved growing up. Switching to a brand new city and team with its history and people that Koppett did not know was difcult, but he accepted it because it was a challenge. Koppett described this change as a “leap into the unknown.” Despite the challenge, he also found it “super rewarding and fun.” Tis risk was one
more step, giving him more experience and skills that years later would allow him to be the executive producer for the Giants during their World Series run.
Afer working in Pittsburgh for over two years Koppett returned to the Bay. According to his LinkedIn, he worked at Fox producing games for the Oakland A’s and the San Jose Sharks for a few years, but got his most prominent position a few years afer that. He became the executive producer for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. During this time he supervised telecasts for the Golden State Warriors, San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s, San Jose Sharks, Sacramento Kings, and San Jose Earthquakes. It was also during this time when the San Francisco Giants won the World Series three times in fve years. Koppett’s work during this time earned him two of his Emmys and surprisingly a World Series ring which is normally only given to players and coaches. But for each victory the Giants gave him a ring. When asked about this Koppet says he was “lucky the Giants and their management are a very classy franchise.” As a high school baseball player and a lifelong Giants fan, a World Series ring is seen as the pinnacle of baseball achievement and to be able to meet and talk to someone in possession of one of those was exciting.
Koppet is also an extremely talented musician. He plays in a band with his friends once a week. Bandmate and friend Chad McDonald says of Koppett: “He is a perfectionist.” He says that Koppett always wants to get pieces correct and that “He’s not afraid to take on something difcult.” McDonald also says that Koppett pushes their band to take on more challenges and improves the band as a whole. Music can be seen as another place in life where Koppett is willing to
take risks, similar to his career in sports broadcasting. Te desire to take on challenges and do something perfect has undoubtedly helped his career in sports broadcasting. When capturing important moments in Giants history, like Matt Cain’s perfect game, Koppett’s attention to detail and precision led to him getting an Emmy for that one game. McDonald said that Koppet has told him that “when he loved something, he went all in on it” which has been refected in both his music and career.
Afer working at Comcast SportsNet, which eventually became NBC Sports, Koppet changed to work for the Pac-12 as the Vice President of Content Strategy. Koppett’s current job at Pac-12 Networks will come to an end this summer because of the collapse of the Pac-12. Because of this, he will have to look for more opportunities to work. When asked about where he would like to work next, he said he wanted to stay in pro sports and most likely somewhere in hockey or baseball. Wherever he ends up, it’s clear it will require yet another risky leap into the unknown that has become so common in Koppett’s life.
