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Sports fans are plenty familiar with cameras at sporting events. 4K broadcast cameras catch the action from every angle, and specialized overhead cameras deliver dynamic angles for instant replays. Even referees sometimes have body cams to complement coverage. However, some venues also have an array of HD cameras pointed at fans rather than the sports action, capturing souvenir photos of people celebrating key plays and moments.
Founded in 2023 by Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame member Tom Fletcher, his sister Sally, and Tom’s son Austin, Momento promises to provide fans with unique photo keepsakes that document their favorite moments from the game.
Momento is just the latest chapter in sports camera technology for the Fletchers. For nearly 30 years, Tom, Sally, and their dad, Archie Fletcher, operated the largest camera rental operation in the Midwest, Reel Chicago explains. Fletcher Camera & Lenses was a massive force in Chicago-area broadcasting, including for the city’s beloved sports franchises. The family eventually sold Fletcher Camera and invested in a new enterprise focused on specialty and robotic cameras for sports broadcasting. It is this work that helped get Tom Fletcher inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2023.
Momento has high-definition cameras in NFL, NHL, MLB, MLS, and NCAA stadiums. The most recent addition to Momento’s roster is the MLS team, Sporting Kansas City. As Tom Fletcher told Axios Kansas City, despite the up-and-coming camera tech company finding a lot of success so far, many fans don’t even realize there are photos of them celebrating at all.
Momento’s HD, typically anywhere from eight to 14 of them depending on the situation, per Sports Business Journal, capture fans during key moments. People can search for their photos just minutes after they’re captured using their seat number and section.
Fletcher explains that the cameras don’t record video and are operated manually by a real person — it is not an automated capture process constantly collecting data on everyone in the stadium. Importantly, although fans should expect to be on camera at a professional sporting stadium, they can opt out on Momento’s website and make their seat at an event unsearchable.
Teams themselves decide what sort of integration they offer. In some cases, like with Sporting Kansas City, fans can buy prints of photos right in the stadium during or after the game. In other situations, such as with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, people can buy photos on souvenir tickets from that game or as the cover of a souvenir Sports Illustrated magazine.
“It’s a great offering for our fans and something that we thought that they would enjoy,” said Dave Lang, the Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation for the Ravens. “I love seeing the pictures of a parent taking their child to their first Ravens game and then having photos from the biggest moments of the game with their child’s reaction. That was the big thing — for people to share that and show other fans what a great experience they had at our stadium.”
By the end of last season, Ravens fans were downloading nearly 25,000 photos per game, indicating that people genuinely want photo keepsakes from their stadium experience. Momento tells Axios Kansas City that fans have viewed nearly 22 million photos since the company’s founding a few years ago. Even still, the company says only about 20% of fans know that there are “pictures of them going nuts.”
As any fan who has been to a sporting event in the past 15 years knows, it is very common to see fans taking selfies. However, there’s no good way to take photos like this during the action, at least not without being a significant disturbance to everyone in the vicinity. With something like Momento, people can have photos of themselves celebrating a big moment, which is a unique keepsake, without needing to have their phone out and risk missing the moment.
Tom Fletcher knows a thing or two about how much sports mean to people.
“After spending decades behind the broadcast lens, you realize the most valuable shot isn’t always the one on the field,” Fletcher told Reel Chicago. “It’s the one that captures how people feel in that moment.”
Image credits: Momento
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